Heeding the Warning
by Mrs. Scott Kennedy
Summary: and romance. The year 2011 rolls in, and a new plague rolls out, causing the dead to rise! Yep, zombies. It's gonna be a little twincestous, but mostly mature. Rated M for violence and twincest.
1. Chapter 1

Ooooh yay I can't wait for the awesomeness that I'm about to write/you're about to read! My first zombie fic on this website! Truth be told, I absolutely _love _writing about zombies and being all science-fictiony about stuff. And adding romance? Adding _gay _romance, no less? I'm pretty excited. I'm sorry if you're offended by this kind of stuff, and if you are, please stop reading immediately. Thanks! Oh by the way, sorry for being a slacker on my other stories. I'm just kind of bored.

My story is based in the original setting of the show, Boston Massachusetts. Zombies don't really work on a boat. Well they do, but I don't think I would write as well. The boys are the same age as they are on the current show though, so like, 15.

I don't own any of the characters or anything, except Max Callen-Meek. He's my creation.

**1/12/11, 12:35 P.M.**

I'm keeping a journal of events that happen. I want all of this to be recorded some way, whether we make it out dead or alive. My name is Cody Martin and right now I am sitting in a basement, writing by the light of a candle. My twin, Zack Martin, is sleeping on a small cot at the edge of the basement. The basement belongs to Max Callen-Meek, an old friend of my dad. I've known him since I was little and he was the only one I could think of going to for help. Well he kind of came to us in a way, but that's kind of complicated. Maybe later. I've always noticed he had somewhat of an edge to him, and boy was I right. Max has this sort of _vibe _to him that kind of just gives you the chills. I don't know. He seems safe and so far it seems he'll do a lot to keep me and my brother alive. I have faith in him.

After years of hiding behind Blankie while Zack watched countless horror movies, I got enough knowledge to know that someone dying and then shortly after, getting up and walking around again is completely unfathomable. Especially the walking dead craving human flesh. I guess I didn't watch long enough, because about a week ago, I was proven wrong. I first heard about the zombies from overhearing a rumor that some sickness broke out in Washington D.C. It wasn't that big of a deal until there started to be emergency broadcasts of a serious illness spreading among the population. On the news, we started seeing what looked like clips from a bad horror movie. Humans, or what they seemed to be, were slowly making their way through their own hoards, trying to find live flesh. They had grey looking skin and usually were covered in some amount of blood. It may have looked like a bad horror movie, but it was actually scary. Then it reached Massachusetts.

Everyone thought that everyone would be fine. We'd be saved by those extreme video game geeks who knew the ins and outs of every Resident Evil, Dead Rising and Left for Dead game or movie imaginable. But everyone that thought that was wrong. These geeks tried, so I'll give them that much credit, but they obviously had the mindset that after they were bitten a couple times, that they could restart from the last checkpoint. Wrong wrong wrong. So then that's when the loonies appeared. The ones that insisted they could save the world since they were the ones that predicted an apocalypse such as this one would happen. So they took their knowledge from "The Zombie Survival Guide" by Max Brooks and got their crowbars and such. They killed quite a few of the monsters, but there were only a small number compared to the huge mass of walking dead. Everything had happened so fast.

That's when, around two days ago, when we found Max.

End journal.

"Mom? Mommy?" I heard Zack moan from his peaceful slumber. I sighed and felt a tear roll down my face. Zack had always been the tough, athletic older twin, but only I knew he was a big softie. Especially when it came to Mom. I guess it was time to break the news to him.

Max had told me around the time I had gotten up that morning that he went back to the Tipton to find it completely empty, other then a few rouge zombies here and there. He got supplies, but there were no signs of our mom.

"Zack…" I stepped down from my rolly seat and walked over to my closest kin. He was quivering underneath the thick blanket. I placed the back of my hand on his slightly damp forehead. His blond hair, which in the light looked auburn, was sticking to his head on the account of all the sweat. He must've been having a bad dream. "Zackery wake up." I kissed his forehead softly then leaned back again. I shook him awake.

His eyes fluttered open and he looked pretty confused at the sight of me. He smiled and reached up to rub his eye. "I thought you were Mom," He said softly. I tried my hardest to smile back at him, but it was painful. It hurt a little too much.

"You hungry?"

"Of course," A natural smile spread across my face. I stood up and offered my hand to him. He stretched and took my hand. He got up, but I could tell he was doing all the work, in order not to strain me. I may have been smart, but I sure wasn't the strongest. "Hey Codes, where are we?" Zack asked me as we walked up the creaky steps.

"You don't remember?" I replied. If he didn't, I would have to give him a serious reality check. I stopped on the stairs to face him.

"Remember what? Last night… we watched that one movie, didn't w-," He quickly looked down at my shoes. "Oh." We continued up and opened the door once we got there. The house we were residing in was comfortable, and certainly warm considering it was January. Max was sitting away from us in a wooden chair. It looked like he was either sharpening or shining a machete. I would've liked to have been 100% sure he was sharpening it, but Max was a proud guy. It wouldn't have surprised me if he was shining the long blade. His head whipped around when he heard the loud squeak come from the old boards. After registering in his mind that it was just us, he turned around to finish what he was doing.

"Hey," He greeted us quietly.

"Hey," I said back, just as quiet.

"What're you doing, Max?" Zack asked, using a normal tone of voice.

"Sharpening my blade," He answered. "Wanna help?" They went off on some conversation about weaponry as Zack was handed a small block to rub against the sword. I walked over to the open kitchen. Weapons weren't really my thing. I mean I could give Zack a run for his money when it came to the _history _aspect of it, but other than that, I was considered useless in that department. I was okay with that.

I stood on my tiptoes to view the contents of the high cupboard and grabbed two packets of Chicken Top Ramen. I fished around the bottom cupboard for a pot and filled it with water. I turned the stove on and placed the water on it. I just stood there, observing all the noises that filled the room. Zack and Max bonding. The sound of the stove turning on. I swear I could even hear my own heart beat. But the most prominent noise was the sound of light scratching and groaning on the other side of the wall outside. I walked over to the front door and peeked through the eye hole.

"Be careful Cody," Max warned. I made sure he couldn't see me before I rolled my eyes. It was a door. I really should've heeded his warning though. In my attempt to look through the lens embedded in the wood, I placed my hand on the handle of the door. It moved downwards and I gave a little shriek as I felt it open. "Cody!" I jumped back, about peeing myself, until I realized the door was still closed. "What did you do?" Max asked, now standing behind me.

"I-I-I… I almost o-opened the d-d-door I think…" I was shaking hard. I was so scared for my life and everyone else's. I could've killed them. Zack shuffled over to wear I was standing and hugged me from behind. His embrace was comforting, and it made me feel like a child again. I fell in sort of a trance.

"_Haha stop it Zack! That tickles!" I push my twin's hands away from my body. His spidery fingers attack again, and I let out a screech. "Za-a-ack!" I laugh and laugh. _

"_Boys!" Mom yells from the kitchen. "Dinner!" Zack stops and turns in the direction of the request. He stands up and inhales the air deeply. _

"_Mmm," He closes his eyes to get a better feel of the scent in the air. "Spaghetti." I stand up too, and follow my brother to the kitchen. Dad's already at the table, knife and fork in hand. _

"_Take a seat, boys," He says. _

"_Hold on. Cody, will you help me get the plates out? I forgot to do it before I called you all in," Mom asks. I nod and bounce over. The spaghetti smells so fresh. I grab a couple of white plates and put one on each place mat. Mom thanks me as she places the pot of noodles and sauce onto the table. _

"_You're welcome."_

"_It was locked." Zack says. _

"_What was?"_

"The door. It was locked. You're fine. We're fine." His words make no sense, so I just help myself to the meal. 

"_There's garlic b-," _

"_Cody," Zack interrupts Mom again. _

"_What, Zack?" _

"_Snap out of it!" _

Everything faded and I opened my eyes to Max's bright green eyes staring into me. I jumped back a little, only to land into Zack. He placed his hands onto the sides of my arms comfortingly.

"It's alright little brother," He said warmly. "I got you." I take deep breathes and Max is still standing there, leaned down so his eyes were at my height.

"Are you okay Cody?" He asked. I nodded. "Did you hear what your brother said?" I cocked my head. "The door was locked. You wouldn't have opened it if you tried any harder without unlocking it first. Does that make you feel better?" I nodded again. Zack was actually the only thing making me feel better at that point.

"Did I… Did I pass out?" I asked. Zack answered this time.

"Sort of. You didn't fall over or anything, so that's a plus. You just wouldn't open your eyes." I nodded and stepped out of his hug, as much as it hurt to. I had to make sure my water wasn't boiling. I turned around and sure enough it was just about to. I ran over and grabbed the orange packets and crinkled them up, only satisfied until I heard the loud crunches of the noodles breaking, then opened it and poured it in.

"Damn!" I exclaim, realizing I forgot to take the silver packets of seasoning out until I poured the second one in. Zack was back by my side in an instant.

"I'll do it." He said. He reached his fingers into the water and grabbed the two packets out. "Yee-ouch!" He shot his hand to his mouth and sucked on his boiling fingers. 

"Thanks."

**1/12/11, 9:52 P.M.**

It was sort of traumatic today after my previous entry. I almost opened the front door while trying to look at the zombies. It was unbelievably scary feeling the handle of the door lower under the weight of my hand. I thought we were all done for. But weirder still, after that, Zack was holding me from behind, and I fell into sort of a trance. I had, like, a day dream sort of about Mom and Dad being together again. I was convinced it was real until Zack snapped me out of it. Surreal. That's what it was. Completely surreal. But it must've been triggered by Zack, because whenever Zack got close to me after that, I felt kind of tired. Or something. I don't know. It was strange.

After Zack and I ate lunch we all discussed what our plan was. We decided we were going to find my dad, wherever he was. I could tell Max was trying to make it out like he was making the plan for our sake, but I could tell he was just as passionate about the plan as Zack and I were. He said we would leave tomorrow. Or maybe the next day. It depended on how ready we were by the morning. He's letting us sleep in, but I don't plan to. I tend to be lethargic all day if I sleep past ten. Zack said he's going to start a journal like me. Max gave him a cool, red, leather-bound one. I think I can tell who the favorite is. I don't blame Max though. He and I both can see Zack got more of my dad's genes out of the two of us. Personality-wise at least. Anyway, after I finish this entry, I'm packing up all I have, which is this. Oh, plus some old pictures that Max found today at the Tipton.

I thought I'd put this in as a side note, but it's been bothering me all day. Why would Max leave us alone here, when a whole bunch of living dead were outside of the house? It makes me wonder if there's another one in the house. I sure haven't seen him or her yet, but it makes me kind of scared. Good night.

Oooh yay I'm even more excited now! How'd you guys like it? I'm sorry I introduced the new character, but none of the previous ones fit the description I was looking for. Anyway, review and I'll post another chapter soon. (For the record, I meant that you should review, but regardless I'm posting another chapter soon anyway).


	2. Chapter 2

**1/13/11, 8:20 A.M.**

Last night Zack was pretty restless. We've had to sleep in the cot down here because Max thinks it's safer. Safer? We're in a locked house. I guess there is a door leading outside down here, in case the door opens up up there. Anyway, I would wake up in the middle of the night last night to find Zack wrapped around me completely. It was strange. Normally I would've pushed him off but I just couldn't in this case. His face was buried in my chest and he looked so sweet and innocent. I just couldn't do it.

We're leaving today officially. Our plan is to leave in Max's car and drive west to New York. Apparently that's where my dad is. Max tried to texting him but he didn't answer. I'm not too worried. Dad is pretty knowledgeable and I think he'd be able to handle this. I heard Max packing last night. I think he was just packing food, which there was a lot the last time I checked, so we'll be alright on that. I did bring up the gas situation last night, but he said that he had a couple gallons of it in his trunk. We were going to get all of our stuff, make sure the coast is clear, and then jet through the back door. The back door leads directly into the parking lot, right to his car. His car is small, one of those Elements, so I don't imagine there will be a lot of room. But Zack seems used to cuddling up with me. I think I need to wake him up now. He stayed up with Max last night before going to bed. He still hasn't packed. Anyway, bye for now.

End journal.

"Zack it's time to wake up." I got up from the chair and walked over to him. He was snoring sort of loudly. This time though, he took no time to awaken. He practically jumped out of the bed.

"Can I take a shower before we go?" He asked me. Oh right. I hadn't showered in two days, but I couldn't speak for him.

"I dunno. Probably. Ask Max. I'm going to pack your stuff in my bag, okay?"

"Whatever." Typical response. He ran up the stairs in search for Max while I started gathering his belongings. There was his phone, deodorant, and his… journal. I gripped the sturdy red leather with my two hands. The surface was smooth. I never thought of Zack as the writing type, but I wasn't sure. Opening the book and reading it had never been more tempting, or more wrong. But I couldn't help it. I undid the buckle that held it together and opened it. The first page was filled with scribbles and Zack's chicken scratch handwriting telling all who saw it to keep out. I ignored it, not phased by his warning of a punch to the face. I flipped to the second page, where I was surprised to see semi-nice handwriting. The entry started with the date:

**January 12, 2011 at 11:07 P.M.**

I got this cool notebook from Max, although its purpose isn't that cool. I don't like writing, but I want something to look back on after all of this. "This" as in the zombie thing. Zombies really, actually infested the United States blah blah blah. They're pretty scary looking, but I think its affected Cody pretty bad. Today he practically passed out after thinking he opened the front door. But it gave me a chance to hold onto him. He fell into me and I just held him from the back as his breathing slowed. It sounded like he was asleep. He was just day dreaming or something though.

There's something about Cody that makes him seem a little less brotherly to me. In a good way. I view him as more of a friend. But I want to view him as more than that. Not more as in brothers mind you, but… this sounds gay, but I want to be closer to him. I want to kiss him, not on the cheek or forehead, but on the lips. A kiss that really means a lot to the both of us. Today he kissed me on the forehead to wake me up. I thought it was Mom, but I was actually relieved it was Cody. When he talks to me, it always makes me think it'll be alright. I'm going to bed. I get to sleep in the same bed as him. I haven't done that in a long time.

I love you Cody. I hope you're not reading this.

I felt a little weird after reading that. I mean, he wanted to kiss _me. _It was just kind of… weird. I felt extremely guilty for reading his journal. I had to make it right. Maybe I would oblige in his request… "What am I thinking…?" I said aloud. The rest of the journal was empty. I stuffed it in my black backpack, along with my journal, my deodorant and his. Last I put in his phone. I sighed and laid down on the bed. Did I like Zack that way? Why? Why in the _world _would I like my own _twin _like _that? _It kind of made me feel icky. I just laid there for a few minutes when I heard someone walking down the stairs.

"Cody? What are you doing? We have to go," Max commanded.

"Sorry. Where's Zack?" I asked as I got up. Max was rolling down two large suitcases full of who knows what.

"He just got done with his shower. He'll be down soon." I zipped up my backpack and then got the nerve to ask him something.

"Max? Why did you leave us home alone yesterday?" He made it all the way down the stairs and looked at me for a second.

"I didn't."

"But… yes you did. You went to the Tipton. You brought pictures and everything!"

"Yeah."

"But you just denied it!" I exclaimed. I was getting nowhere with him.

"I didn't leave you alone." I froze. He wasn't referring to Zack, I was sure. Zack and I would be helpless if the zombies broke in.

"Then who was here?" He stared at me again.

"You and Zack."

"That's it? You left two teenagers by themselves during all of this?"

"There were two of you…"

"But… but… But… that's still…" I sighed. "Never mind." Right in the nick of time, Zack came bounding down the stairs. He took his spot behind Max. I noticed some things I hadn't before about him. I noticed the permanent smirk he had on his face. I noticed his brown eyes were exceptionally bright in the dim light. I noticed how he looked at me. It wasn't full of compassion or fear. It was love. But not the love I was used to.

"Cody? What are you staring at?" Zack asked me. My gaze dropped from his eyes down to his lips. I blinked and looked away. Stupid brain. Why'd I have to focus on his lips?

"Uhh nothing. Sorry. Are we gonna go?" I asked Max. He nodded. He walked over to the door and gave one of the suitcases to Zack. The older man slowly opened the door, then closed it again.

"My car is the silver Element. I'm going to unlock it and you and Zack need to throw the bags into the trunk. The trunk will be unlocked when I get there. Close it; make sure it's closed, and then go into the back seat through the side door. You have to open the front door to open the back. Ready?" He whispered out the directions in a fast, hushed tone. Zack and I both nodded.

"Wait. Is there a blanket in one of those? We shouldn't waste the car's power on the heat."

"Yeah. I put a big comforter in there for you two to share. Now are you ready?"

"We have enough food, right?"

"Yeah."

"Weapons?"

"Check."

"So we have guns and stuff?" 

"Yes Cody." This was one of the most productive conversations we've had.

"Ammunition?"

"Mhm."

"Something to write on?"

"Actually yes."

"Pens? Pencils?"

"Yes."

"Let's go then." I put my bag on my back and grabbed the handle. Zack did the same to his suitcase. "Stand back." We did as told and Max swung the door open. Zack ran before me and we both followed Max. He unlocked the door and Zack threw open the trunk. He through his in, leaving enough room for mine. I thought the plan was to get in the car after that, but he stayed to help mine into the back. I was relieved. I stopped for a moment when I heard moans.

I looked and behind us, twenty feet away, were two shambling zombies coming towards us. "Uh… I ah… ack…" I tried to say something but I couldn't. They were so much scarier in real life. I watched as they walked step by step towards the car. I looked past and saw others were turning the corner down the hill near us. My heart was racing so fast and hard I thought I would throw it up.

"Dumb fuck let's go!" Zack screamed. He never had called me _that _before. I felt his hand around my wrist as he pulled me to the car. He heard him open the first door, then the second. He pushed me in. I was still transfixed by the dead. I felt Zack jump in behind me and he shoved me to the other side of the seat. He closed the doors and the car zoomed backwards and down another hill. I shook myself "awake" and rested my head on my hands, then placed my elbows on my knees. Zack turned around and started unzipping a suitcase. He grabbed something large out of it and put it on the both of us. It was a queen-size, thick, brown comforter. He buckled me into the seat, making sure not to hit my face. He leaned in close to me and wrapped the blanket around us. He smelled like shampoo.

Zack wrapped his arms around my waist underneath the blanket and snuggled close. He stayed like that for awhile, making the front of my shirt damp. I calmed down and sat back. My twin readjusted himself so one hand was resting on my ribcage (his arm still wrapped around me) and his other hand resting on my stomach. I felt comfortable, and I hated to admit it, but slightly turned on. I hoped he didn't notice. I thought about it. I probably wouldn't be so turned on if I hadn't red that entry in his journal.

He fell asleep like that, so I wrapped my around his shoulders and fell asleep with my head against the window. The last thing I remembered was how weird the angle of my neck must've looked.

**1/13/11, 4:00 P.M.**

We are in New York now. Well we have been for a couple hours. We got into an abandoned hotel (of course it had to be a hotel) and stayed there for awhile. Max only had to kill two zombies to get in. We grabbed everything and ran to the top floor. Well first Max got a key. I had no clue where he learned to do that (to make sure the small card will unlock the hotel door). It's stressful moving around with zombies being real.

When we were heading out to the car, I witnessed zombies for the first time, up close. It was scary. I was frozen and Zack had to grab me and pull me into the car.

Oh, I read his journal. He said he wanted to kiss me in an unbrotherly way. I can't help but think that every time I look at him. His face just looks so kissable now. When we were in the car today, he snuggled into me. He put his hand on my stomach, and I accidently got a boner. It's not right. It really isn't. I don't know why I'm feeling this way. My theory is that stressful situations like this bring people together in a romantic way. But with my twin… How can my mind be like this? I just don't understand. But I like it.

We're in a basic hotel room, but it's not like the one at the Tipton. This one just has 2 separate rooms, one for the bathroom and the other for the main area. We can see the main part of New York through the window. It's beautiful. Two beds, so Zack and I are sleeping together tonight. I hope things don't go out of hand.

Like it? There's more! Review and stuff please. Thanks!


	3. Chapter 3

**1/14/11, 9:34 A.M. **

Last night was so exhilarating! Max and I really bonded for the first time and I actually felt powerful for once. Okay, here's what happened:

After settling into our room, Zack, Max and I were all extremely bored. So Max told us if there was one zombie in the hotel, there were more where that came from, so we went on a zombie hunt.

We went next door (with our machetes and guns. Max and Zack had pistols, I had the machete) where a couple had abandoned their room. We cut some dark green shirts into strips and wrapped them around our heads. Then, we took some of the prior owner's darker make up and two streaks of it on our cheeks. We looked so awesome. It turns out that Max made his key a master key, so we had access to all the rooms. We searched through the floor and went through all the rooms. Some parts were sad though. We would go through the familys' belongings and some of the mementos they left behind were quite depressing. But I held in the tears and dealt with it. Our floor, floor fourteen, was zombie-less, although there was some blood in a bathroom, so that was kind of a freaky. We got some supplies, which really only consisted of toiletries and money (we took it just in case. We had discussed going over to the west coast, since that seemed safe.)

We descended to floor thirteen and of course, the contents of that floor just _had _to be as unlucky as the number itself. We went down the stairs and lying there was a moaning body. I could see its ribs through its thin skin and blood was everywhere. Its legs looked like they were rendered useless. We couldn't tell if it was a zombie or not. Zack almost shot it, but Max stopped him and asked if I wanted to do the honors. ME! So I took careful aim, Zack yelling at me to get on with it, and sliced cleanly through its neck. I remember adrenaline rushing through my veins when that happened. It was incredible. They both congratulated me and we went on through the halls of that floor. Max shot down two and Zack got one. I didn't mind. I was proud as Hell I got the first one. I was still scared shitless though. Sometimes, while Max wasn't looking, Zack would grab my hand and squeeze it, or give me a quick hug to make sure I was okay. It was like we both knew what the other knew.

By the time we got to floor seven, we had to refuel. We had clocked a lot of kills by then (I had gotten 5 while the others about 10 each) so we went upstairs to get some food. We snacked for awhile and I took a quick shower. It was about 10 P.M. at that point, so Max decided we needed to go to bed. He admitted he was tired too, so we all turned in for the night.

Zack was still snuggly that night, but it seemed like he was getting a little more sensual. Instead of spooning me and simply wrapping his arm around my torso as we slept, or me doing that to him, it was a little different. He was lying behind me and he put his hand on my inner thigh. Needless to say, I did get an erection, but since we were sharing a bed, I could do nothing about it. We fell asleep like that. Now Zack and Max are out zombie hunting some more. I guess I slept in, but they left a note and a walkie-talkie for me in case there was an emergency. Time for some "me" time. I really want to get into Zack's journal again… I'm a bad person…

End journal.

I flipped my journal closed and ran over to wear I saw my twin stashing his book earlier. I grabbed it out from underneath the cabinet. I flipped to the journal entry I had read, scanned it, then flipped to the next page.

(Zack's journal)

**January 13, 2011 at 4:04 P.M.**

I think Cody got into my journal. All day he's had this really guilty look on his face. I'll have to test the theory soon. We left a couple of hours ago from Boston and now we're in New York. Cody had a close call with some zombies, so I had to drag him into the car.

Max really likes me, I can tell. But sometimes I worry if it's a bit too much. I distinctly remember today while I was taking a shower that he came in. He lingered too long asking when I was going to be out. Jesus, when did it turn into such a sausage fest? I like Cody, Max likes me. It hasn't been confirmed, but I think Cody likes me back. Today, in the car, I put my hand on his stomach. I pretended to sleep until he fell asleep. I lowered my hand and put it over his jeans. I could distinctly feel his boner. I did something that I feel kind of bad about too. I took advantage of him sleeping and unbuttoned and put my hand down his pants, even underneath his underwear. I squeezed, rubbed, and pumped his boner. It was like I was doing it to myself, I even felt pleasure from it, but I knew I had to stop. I didn't want him to make a mess of his pants. What's wrong with me?

Well luckily he didn't wake up. Max just mentioned something about going on a zombie hunt through the hotel. Can't wait.

Love you. (I think you know who you are)

I self-consciously touched myself. He touched me. My twin gave me a hand job… I couldn't get that off my mind. I couldn't even read the next page. I set the journal carefully back into its hiding place and leaned back into my bed.

My guess was that they wouldn't be back for at least another hour, so I had time. I pulled down my pajama pants to my knees and softly stroked my rising penis. The light touches always gave me the most pleasure. I continued to do that for a minute, only focusing my mind on the fact that Zack had touched me. I started pumping faster, this time wrapping my whole hand around my shaft. "Ungh… Za-hack…" I whispered to the ceiling. I was so focused on making myself orgasm; I didn't here the door click open. I closed my eyes and moaned slightly louder, but not too loud. I arched my back and whispered his name again. "Zack…"

"Yeah?" My eyes shot open and I squealed.

"Zack oh jeez how long…" I looked down and reminded myself of my prior activities. "I uh… sorry. I should've started this in the bathroom," I said, as I pulled up my pants.

"No… wait." He told me. He was kneeled on the bed. He put his hands on mine and slid my pants down again. He leaned forward and kissed me, then put a hand on my erection. He squeezed me and I continued to moan for him. I cracked my eye open just in time to see him licking his lips and going down. I registered in my mind that he was about to give me a blowjob. A blowjob…? Jesus I was about to cum already! I would only last seconds under his wonderful mouth.

"Ahh-HH" I wailed. "Watch… i-," I tried to warn him but I couldn't get the words out. I felt myself release into his warm mouth. I felt him hum to get the last bit of the white and then he sat up. He pulled up my pants and wiped the side of his mouth. Before speaking, he ran to our bag and grabbed a piece of gum. He popped it in his mouth, then reclaimed his spot at my feet. He leaned in, blowing his minty breath on my face. I was panting still, overcome with the sensation of one of the most powerful orgasms I'd ever had.

"Cody…" He said soulfully. I closed my eyes as he said it. "Did you read my journal?" I couldn't lie. Especially not after that.

"Yeah I did…"

"You know what that means?"

"Wha-?" Everything happened so fast. First, I saw his elbow rising, then he looked at me and grinned. Next thing I knew, my face was in so much pain. It took my a couple seconds to realize he had clocked me right in the center of the face. "Oh shit Zack! That fucking hurt! Bitch!" Nice words couldn't be said. My vocab switched to the bad side. Well, more like unintelligent, since all I could felt was pain.

"If you want a reminder on _why _I did that, I would refer to the first page of the text." I opened my eyes and he smiled at me. He ran and got me an old shirt. He held it up to my bleeding nose while he adjusted himself onto my legs.

"Well why didn't you tell me you liked me before?" I asked. My voice resembled Squidward's since there was a shirt blocking any air coming from my nose.

"Why? Uh hello, twincest much?"

"Twincest…?"

"You don't know what _twincest _is? It's incest between twins, dummy. It's wrong on so many levels." He smiled. "Yet so right."

"How long?"

"How long what?" A look crossed Zack's face that signified he was thinking I was talking about something WAY different. Well not too far off…

"No no no, how long have you _liked _me like that? Erm… this." He shrugged.

"I dunno. I just noticed it recently." I mentally checked off that I was right for that whole 'situations like these bring people together'. I heard the door click open, and I turned to see Max standing there.

"Hey." He said. Man it must've been a weird/uncomfortable scene to walk into, especially if the man really _did _like Zack like that. Zack was basically straddling my waist/torso as he was holding a bloody cloth to my face. Not to mention that his face was extremely close to mine. "What's going on…?" He asked us. The first thing that came to mind that Max was probably thinking is that I got a nosebleed from seeing something extremely hot or something. Like in yaoi. I wondered what Max would tell him.

"He was looking through my journal, so I punched him in the face." Way to be blunt… way to be blunt…

"Uh… okay then. Are you guys hungry?" I nodded and so did Zack. I had noticed Max had been a lot friendlier since last night. He threw us some chips and two cartons of milk.

"Milk? Where'd you get that?" I said loud enough for him to hear over the cloth on my face.

"Downstairs the giant fridge is still working, so that's pretty convenient."

We ate and sat around and talked. We talked about our home life, families and what to do next.

"So where are your parents?" I asked Max. I had to know more about this man.

"Hmm I don't know. I don't talk to them much anymore. They live in Canada as far as I know. But it's not like I know what they're doing or anything." I figured as much. Zack and I just talked about how much we missed Mom and Dad, which brought us to the subject of what to do next.

"Personally I think it was hopeless to come to New York to find him. I mean this city is _huge _you guys. He could be anywhere. It's possible he isn't even in New York." I said. When did I turn into such a pessimist? Max gave me a sour look. He and my dad were best friends. Maybe not the right thing to say on my part.

"Let's just call him one more time, alright? Then we'll discuss driving again." I thought that was fair enough. Max opened his phone and pressed some buttons. He gave me another 'look' and put the device to his face. His eyes suddenly lit up. "Kurt?" My heart started beating a million miles a minute. "Yeah this is Max… I have your sons. We were planning on going to the west coast. Yeah… we're at the Embassy Hotel in New York… Uh huh. Seriously! Oh awesome. We're on the 14th floor. Yeah. There shouldn't be any danger going up the stairs because I cleared that out this morning." I high-fived Zack as Max told Dad the rest of the information. Max hung up the phone.

"Dad's coming?" Zack and I both asked in almost perfect unison.

"Yep. Gussy up!"

**1/14/11, 10:06 A.M.**

Oh my God. So many things. I'm writing as fast as I can. Dad. I'm actually going to see my dad again! He's coming up to the suite in about twenty minutes. Max called him and he actually answered! I can't wait. I have so many things to tell him… plus I trust him a little more than I trust Max, of course. I mean in this situation, if Max really does have "those" feelings for Zack, then Zack's like a girl and Max is like a straight guy. He could rape him (or me in that same context) any minute! So I feel comfortable with my dad protecting us too.

So that's not the only thing that's happened today so far. So Zack and Max were out zombie hunting this morning (I mentioned that). So I read Zack's journal again and figured out that when we were driving to New York and when I fell asleep, he touched me! He wasn't actually asleep. Once I was, he _grabbed _me, and gave me a freaking hand job! That's not all!

So then today, after that, I'm masturbating, right? And I'm uncontrollably moaning Zack's name. All of a sudden I hear, "Yes?", and Zack's THERE! So I try to pull up my pants and he's like, "No, wait," Or something. He then gives me _another_ hand job, then sucks me off! Best orgasm I've ever had. I haven't had one in awhile either. He then punched me in the face when I admitted to reading his journal. Whoops. So it was all bloody and he got a shirt for my face. Max walks in while Zack is straddling my waist, holding a bloody shirt to my face. Can you say, awkward?

So excited for my dad!

End journal.


	4. Chapter 4

I'd just like to give a shout-out to Shaman Hime for your awesome comments. Best fic ever? *major blush* and you, imonlylookingatyou. Awesomeness is what describes you two.

I ran to the bathroom and combed my hair. Zack ran in after me and closed the door. He focused on the mirror too as I wiped away some dried blood that was on my face from earlier.

"Hey, uh, Cody?" Zack addressed me with a look of worry. I stopped with the wiping and looked up at him, continuing to hunch over the sink.

"Yeah?" He took my shoulders and quietly pressed me against the slick hotel wallpaper. I growled in slight protest until he pressed his lips hard against mine. I focused on what my mouth and tongue were doing; I wasn't going to mess this up. Zack sloppily, practically licking, my face in attempts to get inside my mouth. I wasn't one to refuse when it came to that stuff, so I parted my mouth and his wet tongue slid in. He pressed his knee to my crotch, not enough so it hurt, but just steady pressure to make my whole body quiver. He and I both groaned at the same time and moved he moved his hands down to my waist. I felt like such a girl.

"Boys? Why's the door closed? May I come?" Zack tensed and shot back from me. Before he answered Max, he leaned in to me again and said:

"You're so cute when you growl." I blushed hard and Zack called to Max, "Yeah come in." Zack noticed my blush and put a hand on my forehead. The door opened and I looked at the intruder, who had a questioning look on his face.

"Everything okay Cody? Zack?" He asked. His voice seemed to crack as he said my name.

"Yeah it's all good. Cody just looked a little warm, that's all. I don't think it's a sickness thing, but do you want to check?" He turned to look at Max, who shook his head.

"That's alright. I'm sure you're just a little excited, Cody. You guys should brush your teeth, because I'm not sure when the last time you did that was…" He gave a little laugh, like it was funny or something. It wasn't, but Zack went along with it.

"Yeah-ah you got a point. We do have gum though… but do we have fresh toothbrushes?" Thank God Zack was thinking sanitarily for once. Zack hadn't yet taken his hand off my forehead, and as soon as Max bent down to look through some drawers, my twin slid his hand down from my forehead to my cheek, chest, stomach, then ending with a grope.

"Ungh…" I groaned accidently. My hands shot to my mouth, as if to block the unholy noise (yeah like when did I start to care about the 5th deadly sin? I already proved that today by indulging in _twincest…) _(A/N BTW, I'm referring to lust). Zack's hand snapped to his side, then he looked at me with concern. There was a glimmer in his eye though. It was all very convincing, other than that.

"Are you okay little brother?" He asked, voice dripping with 'concern' and 'worry'. "Are you sick? Do you need to throw up? I'm sure we can find some medicine." I shook my head.

"No, I'm o-," I tried to say, but was interrupted.

"You're sick, Cody? Oh jeez well we can leave the bathroom…" Max offered as he got his head out of the drawer. He seemed a little too eager to have alone time with Zack. He had three, wrapped toothbrushes in hand.

"No I'm fine, really. I just... my head kind of hurts. I think I just need to lay down for a bit." I needed to get out of the cramped space, or else Zack would reveal us both.

"Good idea bro. Want to brush your teeth first?" He grabbed a toothbrush and waved it in front of my face. "Looook, it's all clean and fre-e-esh." I rolled my eyes at his mocking tone. I yanked the toothbrush out of his hand.

"Yes, _bro, _actually I do." I took the cellophane off and ran it under the water. I wanted badly to run the cool water down my face, but I had convinced myself that laying down was the best solution.

I loved the minty aftertaste of toothpaste. I couldn't stop myself from running my tongue over the smooth, clean surface of my teeth.

Dad was bound to be here in at least ten minutes. I mentally prepared myself to be tough, but it would be hard. I would have to talk about Mom.

"Hey, Codster!" Zack shouted happily has he bounced across the room.

"Hey Zackster." I said much less enthusiastically.

"Gee you seem down. What's got your panties in a bunch?" Oh good ol' Zack. Back to normal just when you don't want him to be. I guess toothpaste changes a man (A/N major lulz from this BTW).

Don't get me wrong, I was glad he was better and all, but we were _kind of_ in the middle of an apocalypse. I think a more sullen attitude would be much more appropriate.

"Well, because of _you _I'm 'sick'," I rolled over on my back and used air quotes to show my sarcasm. Zack just rolled his eyes. "Where's Max?" I asked. I had been so absorbed in my own little world, I completely forgot to keep tabs on, who I would convince myself as being, the rapist.

"He's taking a quick shower. Which means…" Zack walked over with a huge grin plastered on my face. I already had a full-on boner going on. "Don't be too loud now Cody-kins. Wouldn't want to worry Max…" He trailed off and jumped on our bed. He dominated me once more with a shower of kisses to my face. He went lower, kissing down to the edge of my pants. No reason to waste time I guess.

He unbuttoned my pants and pulled my underwear down a little. He licked off the bit of pre-cum when there was a loud knock on the front door.

"Oh! That must be Dad!" Zack exclaimed. I heard stumbling from the bathroom. My alarms were going off. I pulled my underwear back over my now extremely throbbing erection and carefully zipped up my pants. I jumped after Zack, who was already opening the door. I stood where I was, about ten feet away from the open door. Zack stopped as soon as the door was wide open.

Dad looked grubbier than usual. In fact, he had a look to him that made me not want to call him Dad, but instead, just Kurt. "Ku- Dad?" I asked cautiously, yelling at myself mentally for almost calling him by first name. His black hair had grown down past his chin and it looked unwashed. Underneath, a good layer of facial stubble had grown in. Longer than usual. He smiled at me crookedly.

"Hi son." His voice was deep and ragged. His whole image seemed tired, yet somewhat familiar. Maybe that's why I wasn't getting the feeling I imagined from seeing my thought-to-be-lost father.

And call it twin telepathy, but I could tell Zack was feeling the same way. His whole posture looked stiff and somewhat shakey. I stepped closer to comfort him. There was just something… off about him. I noticed a faint wave of alcohol wafted from the man standing before us. Zack finally (it seemed like years had passed) stepped forward and gave him a hug.

"Awwh I missed ya Zacky!" He exclaimed.

"I missed you too Dad. So much…" He seemed sincere. Which was weird because I could've _sworn _that he seemed scared at first. Maybe my twin was shaking because he was… crying? It just didn't seem quite accurate.

"Gah Cody get in here. Group hug!" He shouted. I let my dad get a hold of me and drag me into the embrace. I took this chance to get Zack back. As we were all enjoying the father-sons moment, I pressed my waist against Zack's upper thigh. I knew he could feel my boner, because instantly he made a slight growling sound. "You okay, Zack?"

"I'm fine…" I could almost hear him cussing me out at picking the wrong moment to do such a thing. Max then burst through the bathroom door. He had a white towel around his waist.

"Kurt!" The half-naked man exclaimed. I looked up and Dad's face and saw it immediately brighten.

"Max! Oh it's so great to see you! Get in here!" Max squished himself against Zack and me. I couldn't help but notice that Max put most of his 'towel only' self on Zack. I felt bad. After a couple seconds, everyone separated and Max went back in the bathroom to get dressed. Zack was looking a bit pale. Dad sat on the edge of Max's bed. I noticed he was pale too. Jeez what was with them? I mean I had a feeling that Zack's facial tone was thanks to Max, but Dad?

"Hey Dad?" I asked. He was fixed on his shoes. He looked up and his eyes looked dull.

"Yeah?"

"Are… are you okay? You seem a little off." Gee I had a way with words.

"Uh, yeah I'm fine." I nodded and took my place next to Zack on our bed. "So what's happened since I've been gone? I haven't seen you two in a long time."

I looked to Zack for an answer, but apparently the ground was more interesting. "Eh same ol' same ol'. We had school, now we don't. Max got us soon after the sickness hit Boston. We've just been with him ever since. We wanted to find you, so we did. We almost gave up, ya know." Dad suddenly doubled over.

"Uungh…"

"Dad? Dad are you okay?" I rushed over to his side and wrapped my arm around his back. "Dad what's wrong?"

"Ugh… pain… I… I got… bit on my way… here… by one of… them…" I jumped right back. My own dad. Bit by a fucking zombie and he failed to tell anyone. He bent down and lifted his paint leg. Lo and behold there was a giant chunk that was black with coagulated blood and what I would guess as infection. A door opened and Max walked into the room, drying his hair. He was fully clothed.

"Cody? Why are you crying? Kurt what's wrong? Zack are you crying too…? What happened guys?" I touched my face to feel tears dripping. No duh. My dad was going to turn into a zombie. I didn't like Max's constant concern. It bugged me.

"Ma… haax… I got biiit…" He said slowly; milling out the words slowly. I buried my hands in my face.

"I love you, but you know what has to be done Kurt." Zack's voice was cold and harsh. A gasp was caught in my throat. Zack was holding a gun to Dad's head. Time seemed to freeze. I looked at Zack. No remorse showed in his eyes. No sympathy, love, compassion. Dark, cold, angry, defeated. That's all I got from him. I didn't know what to do, so I leaned forward and kissed his stubbly cheek and whispered 'good bye, I love you too' in his ear. I looked to Max, who had a look of utter confusion on his face. "Max. He got bit by a zombie. He's dying and once he does, he'll kill us too. He has about twenty seconds. Say good bye." Max closed his mouth, which was open in a gape, and nodded. He hugged his old friend and gave him a quick peck on the cheek. Zack did the same, then stepped back, putting the barrel of the gun to Dad's greasy head. "Stand back Max. This will be messy." And Max pulled the trigger.

I gave a little squeal at the sudden explosion. It was unbearably loud. I couldn't look at his body. I just couldn't. I heard a thump, which I assumed was his body hitting the bed one last time. My face was in my hands, and it felt like they would be stuck there forever.

"Cody. It's okay." I thought I heard the click of the safety and Zack putting the gun down. I felt someone grab my wrist and walk me to the direction of the door. "Keep 'em closed. Hold on." I heard incoherent whispers; I was too caught up in my own little world. I felt a hand on my side. The door opened and he pushed me out of it. "You can open your eyes now. It's okay…" Zack cooed. I retreated from my shell and attacked him with a hug. I just started bawling on his shoulder, nothing stopping my feelings. "Let's go somewhere more comfortable, okay?" I sniffed and nodded, retreating to his side. He wrapped his arm around my waist while we walked to another room. I didn't bother to check the number. Zack slid the card and we were in.

I laid on the bed next to Zack and snuggled close. I cried more, picturing how low my dad looked as the final goodbyes were said. Did he even realize what was happening? When did he start turning into a zombie? How long did he have at that point? My throat was getting raw from my constant wailing and tears. Zack had his arm behind my neck and was softly stroking my hair.

After about five minutes, I finally calmed down. "I'm… I'm gonna miss him…" I wanted to say going, since that was proper grammar, but it didn't feel appropriate.

"You and me both, brother. But we still have each other, so we'll be okay. I promise."

"But what about Max? What's up with you and him? Like when we were all… all… hugging today." I started tearing up at the memory. My last fond memory of him.

"I'd rather not talk about that… let's just focus on you." Zack looked at me fondly. I don't know why. I felt ugly and gross (jeez who let my inner girl out?). My skin was probably blotchy from the tears, my eyes swollen from the crying. I wanted to cry more because I didn't feel… well… pretty enough to be with him. Looking at Zack was like looking in the mirror of what I wanted to look like. I envied his good looks. There was a reason he had gotten all of the girls. I was tearing up again. Zack's face turned from adoration to concern. "Hey hey hey shh. Cody, what's wrong? Why are you _still _crying? We weren't that close to Dad." I could sense a little aggravation from his voice. I understood. I was being kind of a baby. I couldn't help it. My own father just got his head blown off by my own twin.

"It's… it's not really about him anymore. It's nothing." He leaned down and kissed me, his skin feeling nice on my flushed face. It was just a soft kiss that seemed to say 'I'm sorry' or 'I understand'. More tears. He understood. Knowing that, I swelled inside and flooded with tears again, like a sponge. Zack just continued to stroke my hair, kissing my head every now and then. I could've melted in a puddle of saline, sweat and love right then and there.

**1/14/11, 7:49 P.M.**

I don't feel like myself anymore. Or maybe it's that I feel like myself again. Lately, I've started to feel all out of character. Being badass with the whole zombie thing. But after hearing my dad die. Seeing my own twin shoot him… I don't know. I feel like myself again. I feel like curling up back in the arms of my mom. I don't feel like going out and shooting some living dead in the head. I don't want to do anything "cool" anymore. I feel like I'm back in my shell. I feel sick.

So starting off from the beginning, Dad came along. We all hugged and stuff. We talked, then he broke the news he was bit. Bit by a zombie. A _zombie. _I was shocked, then Zack put a gun to his (Dad's) head and told us to say our goodbyes. I couldn't believe he could be so heartless, until I figured it was best. I covered my eyes when he did it, so he had to lead me out of the room afterwards as Max threw out the body and cleaned the mess. Now I can't get that helpless look Dad had on his face out of my head. It gives me the chills whenever I think about it.

Zack and Max… there's something wrong between them. Zack won't tell me. In fact, when I was crying to him today in some random room, I asked him about it. He said he didn't want to talk about it, but just wanted to talk about me. I was pretty torn up about the whole thing. About the Dad thing, not the Zack and Max thing.

I remember that I was thinking that whole time how ugly I was. I felt it and was having really degrading thoughts about myself. I was so ashamed of my tears. I don't know how I feel about it now. Zack and I were in that room for a couple hours, just talking. He said I was beautiful about a million times. Yet nothing about Max. I'll read his journal again… Max worries me. I know Zack can see it. I mean, I can too, but I hope Zack will do something about it. I don't really want to. I don't know what it is about me.

End Journal.

So when I wrote the line "toothpaste changes a man", I laughed out loud. I'm an avid tooth brusher for some reason. Yeah, actually, I brush my teeth all the time. Especially when I'm stressed. On a bad day (A/N as in stressful), I can safely say my teeth would be brushed 5-8 times by the end of the day. I can't really say it's a bad thing…

Again, reviews muchly appreciated. And thanks again to Shaman Hime and imonlylookingatyou. You're both awesome, dudes. Also, Goodbye Pork Pie Hat. You've pretty much changed the story. Congrats. You kind of freak me out. But I like you.


	5. Chapter 5

**1/15/11, 10:59 A.M.**

We're leaving again. Well not leaving *here* _again,_ because we never left this hotel before. I don't know. I'm confusing myself. Yesterday was rough and my throat still hurts from crying. So we're heading out to Washington (not D.C.). Extreme? Yes. Safe though? I guess. I don't know. I don't really want to leave the safety of the hotel. It makes me nervous. Max and Zack have been quiet lately. I think Max has been quiet because of the whole Dad/Kurt thing. I think they were closer then we realized. But I don't know about Zack. I'm pretty sure it has to do with Max. That makes me more suspicious about Max. I'm pretty sure that all Max wants to do is get in Zack's pants. But if Max did have sex with Zack before I, I would bet you money that it was done unfairly (rape).

Now we're to Washington, resting on the way a couple times. We plan to go to Pennsylvania, Ohio, Illinois, Iowa, South Dakota, Montana, Idaho, then Washington. We're sure there will be plenty of survivors over there, but our goal is to get as far away from the infection as possible. Why not California instead of Washington? (A/N because I'M from Washington, duh!) The climate is much more closer to Boston then Cali's climate is to ours', so Max says we'll probably be more comfortable. I can respect that. Also, less people by the looks of it. Not looks. I've never seen it in real life, but comparing the area of living area in Washington compare to California, it's puny. So we're leaving in a few minutes.

Last night, he gave me another hand job. When we were lying in bed together. Not to orgasm, because that would've been messy of course. I don't really know if that makes me comfortable anymore. See, the whole incident yesterday really did change me. I didn't tell him to stop, because I didn't want to make him mad. Whatever.

End journal.

"Are you _almost _done writing, John Han_cock_?" He decided to make sure he said the word 'cock' as loud and proud as possible.

"Uh Zack? John Hancock?" He giggled a little at 'cock'. Retard.

"He was the dude that wrote the Declaration of Independence, right?"

"Well he was in that group, but Thomas Jefferson is the one that physically wrote it." He started giggling as he put his stuff into his new backpack. "Are you laughing because I said cock earlier?" He started laughing uncontrollably.

"Duh!" I sighed. I forgot how retarded he could be.

"We all ready?" Max walked into the room from the bathroom. Oh joy. Need a good moment ruined? Call Max Callen-Meek. He's your man.

"Yep." I answered, since Zack was silent.

"Good. We're leaving in a minute." He went back into the bathroom to collect the rest of the toiletries. We had a good load of stuff. I hoped we'd be able to carry it all to the car without being zombie food. We had two suitcases, large, Zack and I both had backpacks, and Max had a special briefcase for his guns and machetes. I figured that my brother and I would be stuck with the two suitcases and Max would end up with the gun case and one of our backpacks. I didn't mind that much. It was either that, or leaving the crap behind. Zack sighed from behind me. I was facing towards the bed, looking for my eraser. Zack was searching underneath the TV.

"What is it, Zack?" I asked him. He growled.

"I can't find my journal."

"When did you last use it?"

"Last night." I was doing a happy dance in my head. That meant _I _hadn't misplaced it. If I had, I would've been dead. "So that means it wasn't you." I froze. God damn it. He knew me too well. Time to play dumb.

"I know you keep looking at it. The other day when Max and I were out. Well obviously, because that's the day I punched you…" He laughed at the memory. "And plus that other time I went a couple doors down to find a better sweatshirt."

"What?"

"Yesterday. Lemme think… It was, like, right after you and I got done hanging out on the bed. It was around three in the afternoon. Something like that." I stopped shuffling around my bed. I still hadn't found my eraser, but Zack's story bothered me.

"Zack," I started off slow, making sure that Max wasn't listening. "I haven't touched your journal since yesterday morning." I turned to look at Zack, who had stood up, arms crossed.

"You're lying. I can see it in your face. I can tell. We're twins Cody. I'm not an idiot." I shook my head. I walked closer to him and brushed my hand lightly against his.

"I swear I didn't. I promise you with all my heart." He still looked unsure.

"Promise promise?" To thank me for that, Zack tilted his head to the right slightly, and leaned in. I tried to back up a bit, but he kept a light, pressure on my lips for a couple seconds. The contact between the two of us was so light, it tickled a little. Before I vomited out of nervousness, I separated from my twin and looked into his brown eyes.

"Zack..."

"What? What's wrong?"

"I just don't think…" He gave me a questioning look. Right on time, Max entered the room. I'd never been so relieved. Realization crossed Zack's face, and he turned to face Max.

"Max, where's my journal?" Zack asked.

"Oh I put it in your backpack."

"You… you touched my journal?"

"Yeah. Is that not okay?"

"That's very personal, Max. Please don't do that in the future. Ever. Thanks." I was a little scared. Zack's tone was a little too serious for my taste. I bent down and found my bright orange eraser sitting right on the ground. I put it in my pocket for God-knows why.

"I'm sorry. I didn't know. So are we ready to go?" How was he so unaffected? Even I was scared of Zack. Maybe because of the extra personal connection we had.

"Yeah." I grabbed my backpack and flung it on my shoulders. Zack grabbed his and we both got a suitcase. Just like I suspected. Max, instead of offering to carry a backpack though, just grabbed his case. He had a pistol in one hand. I hoped he didn't have to use it. He opened the door and we all headed downstairs.

It was tough getting down, considering there were a couple of dead bodies on the stairs. Max said there were zombies in the elevator, so we couldn't use that. But we made it through down to the lobby.

"Ready?" Max asked. We had to run to through the outside doors to get to the car that was parked right outside of them. It wouldn't be hard, but it was still scary. I begged to my internal thoughts that I wouldn't freeze up and get eaten. "Same plan as before. We can do this." He counted down, then we all ran. Max threw open the doors and clicked a button on his key chain to unlock the car. I threw my stuff into the seats and Zack follows suit. In seconds, the car was on, and we were driving away. "Phew." Max sighed. I took my journal out of my backpack, took my eraser out of my pocket and got my pencil out. I flipped to the back of the book and folded the front cover back, so it was easier to look at. I quickly scrawled, _can you get Blankie? _I looked up at Zack, who gave me a look. I sighed. _Please. _He smiled back and leaned forward to grab the blue blanket that was slightly sticking out of the top of the suitcase. I erased my message and adjusted the blanket over me. It still fit quite nicely after all of these years. As soon as I was situated, radio turned on, making sure I wasn't _too _close to Zack, I wrote another message.

_Okay, what's the deal. I want to know what's up with you and Max. _Zack turned around and grabbed his pencil.

_Whats there to know?_

_You know exactly what I'm talking about. _

_Fine. You really wanna know_

_Of course I do. I'm your twin. _

_Oh yeah. Forgot. _I bumped him with my elbow. He grabbed the notebook and started writing fast. I couldn't tell if I was going to be able to decipher his handwriting or not. I hoped so. I watched out the window as we went over the Holland Tunnel. We had to zip through the cars that were still on the freeway. I could see the zombies struggling against their seatbelts in attempts to get at our car. Zack finally handed me back the notebook.

_Two nights ago, our first night staying her, Max molested me when I was sleeping. He thought I was sleeping anyway. I was awake and lying on my back. He stroked the front of my boxers and I could hear him jacking off as he was doing it. He took my hand and rubbed it against his dick. He came right next to me, which he conveniently cleaned up with a box of tissues that wasn't there that night or that morning. He actually came a little on my hand. It was disgusting. Happy? _I must've had the most mortified look on my face ever, because Max looked at me through the rear view mirror.

"Everything alright?" He asked.

"Yeah."

"Okay dokey then." Max _had _changed a lot since we first met him. He seemed more happy. We sat there for a minute as I mulled over what I was reading in my head. It was unbelievable. I just couldn't eve… fathom it. What was wrong with that man? I finally erased what was written, then wrote some more.

_Zack, why didn't you tell me that before? We need to ditch this guy, _fast. _Why wouldn't you tell me? _I gave him the piece of paper. I almost regretted what I wrote. Ditching Max would be the best idea, but we wouldn't be safe without him. This could easily be considered Catch 22. Once Zack read what was on the paper, he wrote back:

_I expected you to read it in my journal. You didnt get that far? I wrote it the morning after that. _I thought back to that day. I remembered I only read the entry for that night. I remembered there _was _a page after that. I was so caught up on the fact that Zack touched me, I didn't even go on. How could I have forgotten.

_No… I didn't read that far. I'm so sorry brother. Is there anything I can do to make you feel better? _I handed him the notebook and he snickered a little.

_Come sit in the back with me for a little bit… _the ellipses made me nervous. What could he be… oh. I knew what he was doing. But I didn't actually want to indulge in it this time. Zack unbuckled his seat belt, but I stayed. I set the notebook on my lap and just stared straight ahead. I erased the messages. I heard and annoyed 'huff' from Zack, and he buckled back in. He practically ripped the journal out of my hands. _I thought we were going to be like this Cody._ I read over his shoulder and he handed me the paper. He fully turned his head to stare solemnly out the window. My cheeks grew hot. I was embarrassed. I had made it clear that I wanted a sexual relationship with Zack, but I was regretting that now. Right when he needed me, too. I felt like a jerk.

"I just don't want to do this anymore." I whispered aloud. Writing it down just didn't have the same effect. He looked up to me, his face hurt. He opened his mouth to say something, then shook his head and turned his entire body to the window. I felt so bad. "Zack, I'm sorry, I just-. Don't be mad. You have to und-,"

"Cody, maybe you should start understanding," My twin had turned towards me again, and was whispering furiously into my ear, "Are you the one that's getting molested in your sleep? I don't think so. You and I both know that I'm the prettier twin. There's a reason I get all the girls, _Codster." _He said my commonly used nickname with a sneer in his voice. It hurt. I was staring straight ahead as he was ranting to me, and the world started to get warped and wobbly. I felt a tear fall down the side of my face. "Then why am I so attracted to you? I guess because you're my only fucking option, Cody. I'm sure as Hell not going to take Max. Now you're being a little bitch about this. You seem totally fine before…" He went back to his post beside the window. I felt more tears run down my face. I couldn't believe him.

I could actually. That's what made me upset.

"Hey let's stop at this rest stop really quick." Max offered. He slowed next to an empty looking Exxon store. "I need gas. You guys can get something too." I ground my teeth to will myself to stop crying. The tears wouldn't stop though. Zack opened the door, and I patiently waited. I wiped my face on my arms a couple times, then stepped out of the car.. "Don't cause trouble. Someone might be in there." Max called after us.

We walked in the cold convenience store to find no one was there. Max, luckily, knew his way around the gas thing, so he went and filled up the tank. I ran back to the car to get my bag. It was like a free shopping spree, but all I wanted was comfort food. I went to the protein bar section and dumped a whole bunch in my bag. Not that it was comfort food, but I needed something that was semi-healthy. I then grabbed a couple of drinks. I dumped the whole box of Sweet Mint Trident gum (A/N no affiliation with Trident. Just my favorite kind) in my bag, then all of the M&M's. I loved M&M's. I got some poptarts too, then just sat against the shelf.

I had to think about this Zack thing. Did I want to have a relationship with him? Did I just want to be brothers? Incest is just… kind of gross if you think about it. Just looking at the products of incest just show how dirty it can be, but for gay guys. Different I guess. We can't produce anything gross, besides peoples' reactions.

"FUCK!" I fell over at the exclamation. The curse was Max's voice. I got up and peered over the metal shelves. Max was locked with a ripped up person, which I could only assume was a zombie. It was wearing something that resembled a gas station attendant's clothing. Probably an assistant or a shop owner. "Zack!" Max yelled. I wanted to move, but I was stuck again. The thumping in my chest increased to the point where I could've seen the movement outside of my shirt. I groaned at my internal battle. I took a step, then another. I knew I couldn't do anything to help him. I was weak and only a boost of adrenaline, like a couple nights ago, could help me. But I felt nothing. Something else was stopping me though. "ZACK HELP! CODY!" He shouted again. He had molested my brother. He was a sick man, but he had helped us. I watched as the car door opened and Zack jumped out. He was holding a small pistol that I recognized as the machine that killed our dad.

Zack walked up to the zombie that was attacking our guardian. He put the gun to his head, and pulled the trigger. I ducked down so I didn't have to see the gore. After I could hear the car door close again, I grabbed my back pack and went out to the car. I averted my eyes from the bloody mess on the ground, and got in. Zack and I still didn't talk. Max got in, looking solemn.

"Where are we?" Zack asked like nothing ever happened.

"We're still in New York. Maybe the middle. I don't know. We've been driving for about twenty minutes now." I had to take his word on that. We weren't in there for a short amount of time, even though it seemed like it. After he sat for a couple of seconds, he said, "Alright. We're heading out to Murrinsville, Pennsylvania. Just a heads up. It'll take about 5 hours." I nodded. Max started the car and Zack zipped his backpack up. We all got adjusted again.

"Where is that?" I asked. Never in my life had I known of a Murrinsville, Pennsylvania.

"Western Pennsylvania."

Time to pick up where we left off. I rested my face on my hand, facing the window. I was sitting in Zack's original seat, so I got an enjoyably different view. I listened to the radio and watched the cold, icy landscape turn into lush green in a manner of minutes.

"Ooh I love this song." Max commented and turned the volume up. It was some new Lady Gaga song. Of course he would like it. I secretly liked it too. I hummed along to it until I fell asleep. I had no recollection of doing so until I woke up a couple of hours later.

Imonlylookingatyou and shamin hime, I dare you to say something critical this time around. It actually helps. I mean, I totally love your reviews, but can I get something a little different? Not to be a jerk or anything… Anyway, thanks. And Goodbye Pork Pie Hat, thanks for your reviews too.


	6. Chapter 6

**1/15/11 8:40 P.M.**

Zack's aloofness is killing me. It's absolute torture not having him joke around with me, or even making fun of me in such an intense situation like this. It's my fault, I know, but I don't want to go back on my decision of stopping our relationship with each other. I am feeling increasingly bad about the Max thing, though. All these mixed feelings are making my stomach hurt. I really wish I could just have peace and quiet to myself. Everything just needs to go away for a bit.

The zombies… Max… Zack. Yes, even Zack. I love him (brotherly way, let's not get confused), but he's the main source of my confusion and worry. With some time alone, maybe I could figure this thing out.

Right now, we're staying in a little craftsmen home in about the smallest town you've ever seen. I would guess the life of the town would be the grand old church in the very center, because as far as I can tell, there are no local food marts, post offices, etc. None of the basics for a town at all. The house we're at is yellow, and everything in it is pretty much all built-in furniture. Three rooms (perfect considering Zack and I's status), two bathrooms and a medium sized kitchen.

Max said he picked it because he liked the size, but the first thing I noticed was when we walked in, he flipped a small-framed picture on its face. The move was subtle, and I don't think Zack noticed. When they were in the kitchen, I checked the picture. It was a school picture of a boy with bright green eyes and medium length, black, medium length hair, like Zack and I's. The weird thing? The picture was pretty much an exact replica of Max, just a few years younger. I opened the back of the frame and it said, "age 14". Just a year younger than Zack and I. The other pictures had the same boy, but other people too. They were all family photos. The main people were an elderly couple and a young woman, who looked about 30, 31 maybe. Then, the boy.

End journal.

I put my journal in a small blue drawer in the desk, and got up. I scanned my room and stretched. No noises came from outside, but it was getting dark. I hoped no one forgot to lock the doors. While thinking that, a sudden yell interrupted my thoughts. I completely froze and turned my head towards my door, expecting one of the undead to walk through at any second. A loud gunshot sounded, and I jumped into my bed. I pulled the covers all the way up to my chin and scooted myself into the corner of the bed, right against the wall. I close my eyes and wait for it to be over.

"_Cody, pass me a sandwich, wouldja?" Zack asks. I nod and turn to the large picnic basket next to me. I open it and pull out a peanut butter and jelly that's incased in a small plastic bag. I toss it to him and Zack reaches to catch it. It thuds to the red and white plaid blanket under us. We both apologize and reach to grab it. He gets it first and smiles at me as an 'it's okay'. _

"_Ah, summer's great, isn't it?" Dad says after finishing off his second pudding cup. _

"_Kurt, is that your second one?" Mom asks almost angrily. _

"_Mhm," He nods happily. _

"_Dad! That was supposed to be mine!" Zack shouts. I look to Dad, and he has a concentrative look on his face. _

"_Well… I'll make it up to you somehow." _

"_Ku-,"_

"_How?" Zack interrupts Mom's attempt to lecture. _

"_Oh hm. How about some ice cream after this?" He offers. A grin spreads across my twin's face and he nods. _

"_Hey, can I go get some too?" I ask after I take a swig of my apple juice. Dad laughs. _

_"Can I have your pudding cup?" I laugh too, and throw him my chocolate pudding. As Dad catches it, I notice Mom give him a look. He notices too, and looks over. _

"_What is it, sweetie?" _

"_Kurt," She says sternly, "Can we go… _talk_?" She takes a quick glance at Zack and I. "Somewhere _else_." She hisses. Dad opens his mouth to say something, hesitates, and quickly shuts it again. They both get up simultaneously, and start walking away. _

"_What do you think that was about?" Zack asks quietly. _

_"I don't know…" I whisper. I look towards him and he sets his PB&J to crawl towards me. _

"_Awh come one. You're supposed to be the smart one." He laughs and resides next to me. _

"_I know. Mom's just been really uptight lately. I don't know what the deal is." I look at him and he nods. His deep brown eyes are still shining, even though I feel like death. I hate seeing Mom and Dad fight, just as much as I hate horror movies. Tears start to fill my eyes, and immediately his arms are around me. _

"_I know you can't hear me, but I'm sorry for everything. It'll be okay. You're right." His voice is louder and more real than it has been this whole picnic. He tightens his grip and I feel warmer already. _

"_Sorry?" I ask, barely managing to keep my voice steady. "Why would you be sorry?" _

"_I love you. However you want it to be, it's love no matter what." _

"_Zack? What're you talking…?" The sky darkens, and so does everything else. I start to drift into a state of unconsciousness. _

I woke up from the bright light pouring through my window. It's bright, but the entire room was filled with coldness. I got up and go for the door. It squeaked loudly and my footsteps caused the floorboards to creak. I checked the clock on the wall; ten minutes to eight. I walked over to the kitchen and looked in the cupboards. Empty. Fridge? Empty. Everything must've still been in the suitcases. I walked out to the living room again and quietly unzipped the big black suitcase. I reached underneath the big blankets and went for a can of soup. I walked back to the next cupboard and grabbed a bowl. I poured the soup in and popped it in the microwave for two minutes. I turned around and shrieked. Zack was standing only a foot away from me, but his mere presence shocked me out of my coma-like state of waking up.

"Sorry." He apologized and asked, "Where'd you get the food?" When did we start being friendly again?

"Suitcase." I wanted so badly to be friends with my brother again, but I hated the way he treated me in the car. I figured he deserved to be talked coldly for awhile too. Even though I disliked fighting fire with fire… He walked away towards the living room and I leaned against the kitchen counter. I heard loud stumbling coming from what sounded like Max's room. I looked over as Max skidded into the kitchen. In one hand he held a pistol, while the other held the hem of his pajama pants to keep them from falling down.

"What happened? T'okay? Every-… are you okay-ay. Someone yelled?" Max said, recollecting himself by standing up straighter and keeping a firmer grip on his pants.

"Everything's fine, Max." Max nodded and turned around to look at Zack, who was holding pack of Top Ramen to his chest with a look of fear drawn across his face.

"You okay, Zack?"

"Yeah. You just scared the shit out of me." Max apologized and mumbled something about going back to bed. I found that disturbing. Our guardian is sleeping the day away during an apocalypse when we should be on the road again. Maybe it was early, but who cares?

I must've complained out loud on accident, because Zack walked forward, then stopped. "What?" He asked. I shot him my dirtiest look.

"Nothing. I need to be somewhere else right now." Words poured out of my mouth before I even had the chance to stop them. Soon, my whole body was following my mouth's command. I quietly marched to "my" bedroom and shuffled through the clothes in the dresser.

I lifted up a black and white, thickly striped polo shirt and examined the size. It was pretty much perfect. I stripped off my gross polo and put on the fresh one that smelt like lavender. I decided to keep the dark jeans on so I wouldn't have to remove my shoes. I didn't want to 'be somewhere else', but after making a show like that, I had to follow it, no matter how much my body was pleading to not.

I walked out of my room again and went to the suitcase on the couch. I grabbed a fully loaded pistol. My hand started to tremble as I touched it, but I put the safety on and put it in my pocket. I could hear my pulse in my ears. A sweat droplet started falling down the side of my head and the heat that my body was giving off was making my clothing unbearable. Not that I would want to go in the nude, but still. I grabbed a protein bar since I failed to eat any of my soup, and headed out the door. Behind me, I heard Zack stage-whisper, "What the Hell are you doing?" But I ignored it. Something was tugging my body to go back and hug him, but I couldn't. I couldn't, I couldn't, I couldn't.

I walked across the street, making sure no zombies were around. I spotted none. I walked straight up to the big red church and pushed the great doors open just a tad. They creaked wretchedly loud and I couldn't help but wince.

"Cody!" I could hear Zack yell behind me. My conflicting sides were all hurting my body. I wanted to run back to Zack and kiss and hug him like the twincestous couple we were. I wanted to run and spit in his face. I wanted nothing more than to die. I wanted to simply have time alone.

I pushed the huge door open all the way and stepped inside the echoey building. With each step on the blood red (why did my mind use an adjective like _that) _carpet, a muffled echo filled the creepy silence. Creepy, because at the time, the church was about the scariest place in the world. A large crucifix was adorned on the wall opposite of the doors with melted, unlit candles all around the bottom of the wall.

Each pew was empty, which was a sight I'd never seen before. I could've guessed that the total amount of times I had been in a church was three, not including the current one. Once because of Grandma, second when Mom thought that religion would be good for Zack and I, and third time for Uncle Pete's funeral. All three events we caused (correction, Zack caused) havoc among the guests, and we were kicked out. All three of those times, the pews were filled so full, some of the kids sat on the ground in the aisle way. The emptiness was what scared me the most.

I kept walking, but I slowed my pace as I walked down the aisle way. Because of TV, I felt like I was getting married. The church I was in was kind of lame compared to the elegant castle-like buildings shown on those wedding shows, but I couldn't help but imagine myself in a tux, walking down the aisle, waiting for my sweet to be right behind me in only minutes.

I smiled at the thought, and suddenly, I was in a dream land.

I walked up the steps and turned on my heels to face the full pews. Each person was grinning at me from ear to ear. I was used to seeing different looking families on each side of the aisle because of the TV shows, but these families looked similar. Too similar. The first couple walked down the aisle. The best man looked a lot like the boy in the picture at the house. The girl, I couldn't place a finger on. They separated, and the girl took a spot next to me. She patted my back as another best man and bridesmaid walked down the aisle together.

"You alright, man?" The girl asked. I nodded, still focusing ahead. I _had _to know who I was marrying. Another bridesmaid and best man entered through the giant doors. The second and third bridesmaid took place next to the blond that asked me the question, then it hit me. Why were they lining up next to me? I gulped and looked down. I gasped as I saw I was clad in a beautiful wedding gown, complete with sparkles. The skirt flowed down to the ground and poofed out a bit because of the petticoat underneath. 'Poofed'? When did I start saying things like 'poofed'? I was holding a big bouquet of lavender as well. Weird. I looked up to notice that everyone was turned around, staring at the door. The grand finale. I concentrated to see a man escorting another man down the aisle. One had black hair while the other… I couldn't tell. It was matted against his head, and some parts of his scalp were peeling off.

… What.

He was wearing a preacher's outfit. As he got closer, I noticed that some of his skin was peeling off his face. Not like a sunburn peel either. Full on, flesh-still-attached, peel. He eyes were white and his tongue was lolling out of his mouth slightly. As he got closer, he became more and more disturbing. I noticed that he was dragging a broken foot behind him, and his left hand seemed like it was about to fall off. I couldn't move though. I was paralyzed. The same feeling I had a couple days prior. The 'preacher' moaned slightly and I took a step back. He was now maybe six feet away, and I could smell his stench. My stomach lurched and I about vomited right there.

"Cody." It said sternly.

"Wha…?" The dead preacher was… talking to me?

"Duck, man!" I looked a little past the zombie to see… Zack. He was frantically waving around a gun, shouting commands at me. The man escorting the preacher disappeared suddenly. So did the families, all at once. One by one, the bridesmaids and best men did too. All that was left was the zombie, me, and Zack. His voice bounced off the walls and I took another step back. I instinctively reached for my pocket.

"Uhh… uhh… mm…" I squeaked. I reached for the gun. My hands were shaking so badly, and I was sweating even harder then Zack did on a regular basis. Another moan escaped the zombie. I held the gun up and angled it to the zombie's head. "I… uhn. Uh." I didn't even know what I was trying to say. I pressed my finger against the trigger, with no results. Safety. The safety! I fumbled with the gun, finally clicking the safety off after a second, then dropped it after a large boom sounded in the building. In an instant, I was covered in red sticky goo. I looked up from my hands to see the corpse fall to the ground at my feet. Its head was broken open and after a second of thinking about what happened, I let out a loud wail and broke down in tears. I backed against the corner and knelt down, sobbing. Everything smelled horrible. I leaned forward and spit up bile on the ground. I could taste it was mixed with blood, but a sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach told me it wasn't my blood. I wailed louder when all of a sudden arms were around me. I tried to shove them away, but they held a firm grip against my whole body, pinning my arms at my elbows against my torso (A/N does that make sense? I hope so…).

"Cody shut up. You're going to attract more of them." Zack whispered directly into my ear. He held me up as he stood. We started to walk, but then he stopped and he knelt down next to me. Probably to grab the gun. There was a click, then Zack enveloped my hand in his. I had my eyes closed the whole time as Zack lead me to the door. Not too slow, I noticed, in case any more appeared. "Shower, now." Zack shouted as we exited the church.

"I kn-n-," I tried to answer but Zack quickly shut me up.

"Not you. I was talking to Max."

"But there's only one ba-," But I was interrupted again.

"He's starting it for you Cody." And that was that. I kept my eyes closed until the door opened and Zack pushed me inside. I brushed my sopping gooey hair out of my eyes and opened them. I went to the bathroom and climbed in, clothes and all. I sat down and let the warm water rinse out all of the stupidity I caused myself.

I could finally see how stupid I was being. Going to a church by myself? Uh hello. I was so retarded sometimes. I slowly shook my head and slicked my hand through my hair. I looked over to see Max and Zack staring at me. Max whispered something and walked away, then Zack came forward. He shut the door behind him and kneeled against the bathtub.

"How you holdin' up?" He asked sweetly.

"I feel horrible." Zack gave a sad smile and ran a hand through my wet, semi-clean hair.

"I know. I know." He was acting disgustingly like Mom. Not that she was gross, but it seemed like Zack was trying to take her place by being the older twin.

"Stop it Zack." I glazed my eyes over and stared at the tiled wall in front of me.

"What're you talking about."

"Stop trying to be Mom. It's not helping anyone." 

"Cod-…" He tried to start an argument, but stopped himself, being the _mature _one. "I wasn't trying to be like her." I looked him straight in the eye and said,

"You think you're dominant because you were born ten minutes first. You think you're almighty because you can tell me off and not expect anything to be different. You just think you're the best, so you can act like Mom. Well you know what? I'm not buying it for a second, Zackary Martin." I stopped to take a breath, preparing myself for the next part of the speech. Zack just stared like a deer caught in headlights.

"Just because you're the oldest doesn't mean you can initiate a relationship between us." I whispered that part, then raised my voice. "Stop thinking you're the shit every time you rescue me. I'm tired of it." I furrowed my eyebrows and stared at Zack until his face hardened.

"Oh you think I think _I'm _the shit because I _saved _you? We're a team, moron. We're twins. We're supposed to fucking look at for each other. Just because _you _haven't had a chance to do that for me yet, doesn't mean that I'm the one that's being the jackass here. I just saved your _life, I _and I'm the bad guy? Screw this Cody. You want to be by yourself? Fine. I'm okay with that. You sure won't be though," He got up and walked towards the door. His final words, with a chuckle, were, "I give it a few hours until you give up being a loner."

**1/16/10 10:19 A.M.**

Wow. I told off Zack. That didn't work. He basically just spit it back in my face. I really don't feel like writing right now. We're in the car right now and we're heading off to Ohio. I forgot what city Max told us. I'm scared because of Zack. He can be frightening when he wants to be.

End journal.

Oh jeez, guys, I'm sooo sorry I didn't update last week. So much end of school stuff, I just couldn't. Last week wasn't my week anyway. I felt like shit. So here's a chapter that represents that! Thank you Blazing Penguin, Shaman Hime and imonlylookingatyou for your wonderful, critical reviews. They helped actually.

Zombie walk in Seattle on July 3rd. Also it's national free hug day. I'm totally going.


	7. Chapter 7

**January 15, 2011 at 9:30 A.M.**

I swear, Cody is going to be the death of _everyone. _Today, he ran to the church across the street from Max's now-dead grandma's house and almost got himself _eaten _by some zombified priest dude! He's such a retard. Afterward he took a shower, and I was talking to him, and we got in this fight. He told me to stop acting so much like Mom. So I basically told him that if he doesn't want me to be around that was fine, and warned him he wouldn't last a day on his own. Which, as we all know, is _completely _true. Every time he sees a freaking zombie, he freezes up and looks like hes about to wet his pants! But I dont care.

At least that's what I keep telling myself.

In a sense, I do care. Hes my twin. Anyone would care about their twin in a time like this. But lately, hes just been treating me like crap. I guess that its semi-vice versa, but even so, Im pretty positive he started.

I dont care though, because whatever he gets, he completely deserves it. Maybe he shouldve been a _little _bit more caring when he learned about Max.

I dont care. At least I think I dont. I dont know. Codys stupid. Right now hes just sitting in his bedroom. I would think hed be writing or something, but hes just sitting there. Were leaving to wherever in about an hour. Max said that it might be Ohio, or we might just skip over Indiana and Ohio completely, right to Illinois. He wont tell us what city in Illinois though, so thats kind of annoying.

No new news on him BTW. As in… well you know.

Do I love you?

I skipped back a few pages to see the last few entries, about three of them, to all be ended the same way. 'Do I love you'. Which by reading deeper into his diary, it's obvious that he does. So that means that if I were to get in some trouble, he'd still be there to protect me.

I hoped.

I had convinced the two, Max and Zack, that I was fine in the safety of the car as they searched through one of Max's friend's homes for survivors. I had to read a page of his journal. First of all, I feel pretty rebellious when I do, and second, I wanted to see if he was serious about his whole rant earlier today. Which judging by his entry, I don't think he entirely was.

I quickly shoved the journal back into the suitcase once I saw the door open a couple yards away. Max and Zack came dashing out, almost tripping over themselves to avoid a large mob of zombies that were stumbling behind them.

"UNLOCK THE DOOR CODY! UNLOCK, HURRY!" I wouldn't be able to last being a loner? I knew how to drive. The car keys were still in the ignition. I had supplies that could last me for days, and maps were easy. If I was being forced to survive on my own, Zack could too. Both came running up to the window.

"OPEN THE FUCKING DOOR CODY MARTIN!" Zack swore and pounded some more. I crossed my arms and shook my head. The zombies were still about twenty feet behind them, so they could be fine for a couple of seconds.

_Kaboom!_

I directed my attention towards the sound. It was obviously a shotgun and someone… shouting. It came from the house. The person came hurtling through the crowd of zombies, blasting heads off left and right. After a majority was killed, the mysterious person directed their attention towards our car.

"Yeah that's right Max fucking Callen-Meek! You better fucking run!" The person cocked the shotgun again and aimed it straight for the engine of the car. Or maybe Max, I couldn't tell. Zack hit the window one last time.

"Cody fucking Martin, if you don't open the door, we're leaving you here, and see how you like it!" I leaned forward to unlock the whole car. I couldn't risk it with that crazy person out there.

The doors slammed shut and we wheeled out of there so fast, it made skid marks on the ground. The person in the distance got smaller and smaller, with the sounds of the shotgun and shouting grew to nothing.

After a couple minutes of heavy breathing and recollecting ourselves, Zack turned around to face me. Quietly, he started lecturing again.

"Are you fucking stupid, _Cody?" _He sneered. I shook my head. "Oh yeah? Well it sure fucking seems like it. We risked our lives for you, which is something I promised this morning I would never do again. And to repay us, you threaten our lives? You could've lost yours too, asshole! What the fuck was that all about, huh?" I took a couple seconds to answer. I was not going to let him control me like this, and leave me in a stuttering mess, _again. _

"No I'm not fucking stupid, Zack. I was just proving you wrong. I can be a loner, whether you like it or not. Maybe I should've left you guys out there. Maybe you would've learned a thing or two about me.

"HEY!" The car halted to a stop in an empty intersection, and Max turned around. "Cody, you're behavior back there was absolutely ridiculous. You're lucky we're not all dead. Now all of you, be quiet, okay? It's hard to concentrate on driving wh-,"

"MAX! MOVE!" Zack screamed.

"Wha…?" A big green jeep was screeching its way towards us, threatening to run us over like the simple pieces of meat we were. I screamed, Zack did too, and I think I even heard Max as he did everything he could to move the little Elemental out of the way of the bigger, more threatening four-wheeler.

The car zoomed past us and Max turned around again. "See?" He said. "Just shut up for awhile." I paid no attention to what he was saying, and instead traced the incoming zombies on the bottom part of the window inside the condensation. Max was trying to be like Dad, and it was getting really old, really fast. I didn't want to say anything though. I hated being yelled at, and I had been getting way too much of it the past day.

I woke up a couple hours later to Zack going, "Wooah." As we started to drive by Erie Lake. "I didn't know it was so huge…" Obviously everyone had forgotten about the whole incident and we had returned to our regularly scheduled events.

"You've never seen the Great Lakes?" _No_, I mentally answered for Zack.

"No I haven't. Just this one so far." Now Max's answer: _Well we'll be seeing-_

"Well you'll probably catch a glimpse of another one here pretty soon. Keep your eyes peeled." Gee thanks _Kurt. _I checked the clock; 12:35. We'd been driving for two hours.

"Max, how long 'till we get to wherever we're going?" He didn't answer me for a good couple of seconds. Oh that's right, the _other one's _still here.

"About five hours." I resumed looking at the wreckage across the way the was once Cleveland, Ohio.

"Ever listened to Nine Inch Nails, Zack?"

"Nope. Why? Any good?"

"Well I'm just asking because the lead guy, Trent Reznor, started the band in the city we're in now… I don't think you'd…" Thanks Mr. Factoid. I rolled my eyes and stopped paying attention. The wrecks on the freeway were fascinating, because all of the people that died once had lives, and loved ones. Now they were someone else's lunch. We swerved past another zombie.

"Why don't you just run them over?" Zack questioned.

"Because they could potentially break the windshield. We're going pretty fast, and most zombies are pretty heavy, dead or not." They're dead weight, ha ha. "Like the term dead-weight. Still heavy." Oh my God. Were we telepathetic or something?

"That sucks…" I heard Zack whisper a couple minutes later.

"Hm?" I 'asked' on instinct. Then I remembered that whole, 'we're not talking' thing.

"I wasn't really talking to you, _Cody._" I almost was offended , but I then remembered his journal entry, and I quickly shook it off.

I set myself into a trance by staring at each individual zombie, thinking about how there seemed to be a slight influx of zombies. Maybe that was just because I was paying attention more, and not being on the verge of peeing my pants. One zombie reached for the car. He was wearing a torn up business suit. One woman was struggling to get up, trapped underneath a burning car. I noticed another woman Max had to swerve to avoid hitting. She was pregnant. Poor lady.

I needed to stop being so emotionally attached to these dead people. I shrugged it off and snuggled into Blankie.

"Will you please turn the music down so I can _sleep _for a bit?" I pleaded towards Max, who was playing the newest hit from Justin Beiber so loud, it was probably attracting some zombified fan girls. Fan girls, dead or alive are not fun. They're just… annoying.

"Oh, like this?" Zack leaned forward and turned the knob to the right, blasting the music even louder, causing the speakers to buzz because of the bass. I nodded.

"Yes thank you. That's exactly what I requested. Because Justin Beiber's my absolute _favorite._" I looked at Zack as one of his eyebrows disappeared into his blond hair.

"Oh I know it is," He shouted above the possibly pre-pubescent teenager, "You just think about him _every _night before you go to sleep, huh!" Can we say lame comeback much?

"Yeah, but at least I don't still fanaticize about _Madonna. _She's not sexy anymore Zack, get over it!" I screamed. Zack and I hadn't fought like that since… well it seemed like ages. Not the whispering kind of fights, but the full out scream wars.

"Ha that's not as bad as fapping to Edward Cullen every time you read those stupid books. I mean talk about _old! _How old is he, like, one-hundred? Two-hundred?" Totally not true. Madonna thing? That was spot-on accurate.

"Zack, just because you _can't read _doesn't make the books _stupid_! And he's one-hundred and twelve."

"Oh but looky-here! You never denied it, did you?"

"Let's not forget that _you _never denied the Madonna thing, or the fact that you couldn't read. And for the record, I _don't _fap to Edward_, _thank you very much."

"Yeah well at least I'm attracted to women, which is something I know you can't say!" I was glad Max wasn't stepping in like the parental figure he was posing as. I hoped this would blow off some steam between Zack and I.

"I'm not the one that gave my own twin a BLOWJOB in the middle of some random, abandoned hotel during a zombie apocalypse!"

Whoops.

Not that much steam needed to be blown off. I covered my mouth and stared wide-eyed at Zack, who couldn't say anything, much less close his mouth. Seconds passed until Max turned down the music, stopped the car (hopefully making sure there were no zombies around, that retard), and turned around.

"_What?_"

Of course he'd be interested in that. He probably only heard the word blowjob.

No matter how much I could joke about it being funny, I was completely terrified inside. I would have to answer more questions, and I hated to do that, especially on a subject like _twincest. _

"Cody, can you repeat what you just _screamed_?" I started to perspire at the sudden interrogation. WWZD?

"W-why?"

"Because I asked you to." He said in a tone that struck a little too close to home. He was being Kurt.

"You're not the boss of me…" I looked to the ground, avoiding any and all eye contact, as much as possible.

"Cody Martin!"

"Sorry. I said… I said…"

"He said he's not the one that gave his twin a BJ in an empty hotel during a zombie outbreak. There. Happy, Max? Now what did that accomplish?" Good ol' Zack, sticking up for his poor, pathetic twin once again.

"Is this true, Zack?" Max asked him. And shockingly enough, Zack nodded. "Really now. When was this?"

"Remember when Cody had a bloody nose?"

"Yeah…"

"I had given him a blowjob right before that."

"Then you… punched him?"

"Max? What does it fucking matter? Just drive so we can get to our god damned place, okay." Max pursed his lips and changed the radio station, and continued driving. I turned around and noticed a hoard of zombies only twenty feet from our car. Gross. Suddenly I felt Zack whispering in my ear:

"I told you we were a team. I don't care how much you can call me the bad guy. We _are_ a team. I'm sorry." And with a light peck on the cheek, he went back to his side and continued to stare out at the Great Lakes.

An hour passed and I had counted a total of fifty-seven white cars, thirty-two red cars, sixty black cars, twenty-two blue cars, two green cars, and five of various other colors. Now that we were farther away from the beginning of the outbreak, there were actually cars with normal people in them, driving along side us. Some smiled and waved; some looked scared and drove way ahead of us. I also started to notice a lot of helicopters and military cars driving the way we had come. Now we were passing Florence, Ohio.

Then we were passing Toledo, Ohio.

I must've fallen asleep, because then we were passing into the state of Indiana.

"We're going to take a rest stop." Max monotonously commented. With a quick turn of the steering wheel, we bounced off road into an empty field. Zack dug into the suitcase to grab a few snack bars, then we headed out the door. I stretched as tall as I could, reaching for the sky like they always had told us to do in gym class.

"Toss me a snack bar, Zack?" He did as asked, and I unwrapped it, carefully crumpling the wrapper and putting it in my pocket.

"Dude why don't you just throw it on the ground?"

"Because that's littering…?"

"So?" It was so obnoxious when people argued with 'so' or 'it just doesn't'. I believed it showed a sign of stupidity.

"Whatever." I also hated it when people retorted with 'whatever'. But that was beside the point. I had noticed that I had started to a lot of things that originally bothered me before the sickness. Like intentionally causing problems, like earlier that day when I didn't open the door for them. I started to feel sick in my stomach whenever I thought about what I did.

I took careful bites of the bar and starting walking around the field. There was still wetness on the grass from previous snow, or maybe rain. The sky was dark, so I suspected it would probably be snowing soon, knowing the central states. The water on the tall grass brushed against my pants and seeped through to my skin, making me shiver. I closed my eyes to take a deep breath, thinking about what I would be doing if I wasn't on the border of Indiana.

I checked my watch. 2:37. If I were still in Boston, I'd probably be with Barbara doing some studies for school, or maybe reading in the comfort of my own bed. Maybe Zack and I would be pulling a prank on Moesby. Or maybe baking cookies with Mom. I felt a pat on the back. I turned halfway to see Max standing next to me.

"Yeah?" He placed a hand on my shoulder and leaned in close. It was a gesture that a good friend would use to signify they were friends. Or something a mom or dad would do if they were happy with their son or daughter. Max was a whole different category.

"I'm getting really fucking sick of your attitude, _Cody_," He sneered. "And what the _Hell _is going on between you and Zack, hm?" I could've answered that many ways, but I was getting pretty sick of his attitude too. So bad I wanted to say, _I'm getting really fucking sick of your attitude, _Max. _What does it matter to you if Zack and I were together? What the Hell is going on between you and him, hm? We could've easily fucking made it without you, you dumb fuck. Keep your hands off of my fucking brother. _I don't know. Something like what Evan says in the Butterfly Effect. Even though some consider that movie 'scary', I just thought it was intriguing. I had no idea that Evan's speech to Mr. Miller would have so much relation to my situation. But I wasn't as tough as Evan. I had no motivation like he did. All I was was a coward.

"Nothing. Nothing is going on between us." I said solemnly. I took a bite out of my protein bar and stared out across the wet field.

"Then what was up with that blowjob conversation then?" _Are you jealous? _

"He was lying." _I _lied through gritted teeth. Out of my peripheral vision, I saw him shake his head, his hand on my shoulder tightening.

"You're lying. I know you are. I saw what was in his journal. I saw what was in _your _journal. I know you know, and I know what happened between you and Zack at the hotel. I guessed it kind of changed all of us for a bit, huh? A little temporary spice to our lives, eh?" I ground my teeth into each other. I felt like I had been defiled. My journal, what I thought was safe to put my secrets in, turned out to be blackmail. Maybe that's how Zack felt when I read his journal. But he did somewhat address that to me. Did that make me the bad guy?

"You're a sick, sick man…" He just laughed. A sadistic, trademark, villainous laugh.

"There's nothing you can do about it. You wouldn't last a second without Zack, and Zack wouldn't last a second without an adult. Even if that adult is _me_." I shook my head.

"You're wrong," was all I managed to say. I had a whole speech in my head that I wanted so bad to strike him down with.

"I'm wrong? Right. Without Zack, you would've been zombie chow a long time ago…"

"I-,"

"Hey guys, what's up!" Zack shouted happily behind us, interrupting Max and I's 'bonding time'. Max stood up straight and took his hand off of my shoulder. I carefully rubbed it. He had bruised me already.

"Oh nothing," Max replied in his sweet, fake friendly voice. Zack had to know that was fake, "Just hanging out with Cody. We haven't really hung out these past few days like you and I have." Max said to Zack.

"Oh." Zack's eyes flicked over to me, then to Max. "Cool," He replied. "So don't you think we should be going soon? I can see some zombies heading towards the car. Plus, don't we still have like, four hours to go? It'll be dark if we wait any longer." Max looked over to the car and nodded.

"Yeah you're right." He started to walk towards the car, but Zack hung back.

"What did he say to you, Codster?" I smiled at the nickname. Now that I knew Zack wasn't exactly the bad guy, I could appreciate his little Zackisms.

"Why haven't we left him any sooner?" I asked. We started walking and Zack shrugged.

"I hate to say this, but, where would we be without him? In the belly of a zombie?" I cringed.

"No. No, we would've found help. I know we would've." Zack sighed, and I looked over. He rolled his eyes.

"Cody, we're fifteen years old. We had no weapons before Max saved us. We have to stay with him. At least until we get to Washington. At _least_."

"Well of course, _at least_!" I practically shouted. "When _least _comes around, we'll have no where to go after that. That's the end! I mean we could split to Canada or Oregon after that, but there's no more east." Zack just rolled his eyes and opened the door for me.

"Then we'll go to Canada or Oregon. I don't know, and I don't care, we're going to Washington, and we're not just going to jump-ship right now." And with that, we resumed our stoic mannerisms for a long car ride.

**That did and did not turn out longer than I wanted it to. I was going to end it, but then I decided it wasn't good enough, and added a little over five pages. This isn't my best, and I hate to post it while even I don't like it. But then again, there are parts that I really like about it. I had to transition into this next part somehow. **

**As for other news, Zombie Walk=excellent. I got a lot of inspiration by all of the wacky costumes. **

**Thank you for your wonderful reviews, they help a lot. Some of you may be able to tell where you helped! I think it's funny to look at my reviews page. Huge paragraphs as opposed to the basic "OMG I LUV IT LOLZ". You guys are excellent! I'm rambling… sorry. **


	8. Chapter 8

**1/15/11 7:53 P.M. **

Max is so retarded. We're in _Crystal Lake, _Illinois. Crystal Lake? Friday the 13th? Zack freaked when Max announced, "Now entering: Crystal Lake Illinois." Max is such an idiot. Now we're stopped by a lake called Vulcan Lakes, and we're now trying to rest in the car. Max said that if we go into the town, there's a possibility that zombies could completely surround us in our sleep, and "we'd end up being a giant piñata in the morning." No joke. He _actually _said that. So now Max is asleep, and Zack is writing in his journal too.

I really just want to get Max out of our lives, and I have no idea how. Well actually I do. That's why I'm writing this. I wouldn't be writing this originally, out of fear he'd read my journal again, because this time I really think that we can get him out of the car by tonight. When I wrote "I have no idea how" I meant that I have no idea how I would execute it, because Zack is a big part of it, and I don't know how keen he'd be on it. It involves… well basically seducing Max into being relaxed enough to push him out of the car.

I don't know if Zack and I are cool or not either. That's the biggest problem. I'm not sure if he trusts me enough to help me out. I just hope that his want to get rid of Max overpowers his disdain for me. I guess it's not quite disdain. He did talk to me after Max and I talked in the field. I shudder when I remember that scene.

As of late, everything has been "I don't know" and "I hope". I just want to have something in my life that I'm sure of, but I just can't think of anything. This is tough.

End journal.

I listened to Max's quiet snoring as I shut my journal. I looked over to Zack, who was still writing furiously in his notebook. I tried peering over his shoulder to see what he was scribbling out, but his handwriting was difficult enough to figure out when I was inches away from the paper, no less three feet.

I stretched and curled my toes. It was only seven, but I was tired. It was getting dark outside, but that was no excuse. I had to be on my toes for the next hour in order to make this whole thing happen.

I heard the gentle sigh of Zack's book closing, and the shuffling of him putting it in the backpack. I popped a piece of gum into my mouth and nudged Zack with my elbow. He cocked his head, and I started writing on an empty page in my journal.

_You want to get Max out of our lives for good? _He took the journal and read it, only to give me a look like I was the biggest moron on Earth. He jotted down a couple lines and handed it back to me.

_Well no shit Mr. Holmes. Of course I want to get rid of this pedo. Lemme guess, you gotta plan?_ I laughed when I read it. He knew me so well. I took back the paper and wrote:

_I do have a plan. But do you_ _trust me Zackary Martin? _Wow was this a drug deal or something? I was acting all mysterious…

_Of course I trust you, dork. Your my brother. What gave you any reason to think otherwise? _I shrugged.

_Our relationship has been a little rocky lately. Anyway, are you willing to do anything to get this mofo off our hands? _Zack laughed out loud when he read the paper.

"Mofo, Codes? Seriously?" His eyes lit up and I laughed too; quietly of course.

"I couldn't think of anything else…" I admitted and he started writing. It took longer than usual, so I was getting anxious to read it. Finally, after about a minute, he handed the notebook back.

_Okay. Cody? The SOB molested me. And he isnt even an old man or anything. Not that that would be acceptable either, but hes like 27 and could get a perfectly good girl, even in a zombie apocalypse. Of course I'm willing to do anything. The guy's a pervert, and I don't want him hurting either of us. Just lay it on me, bro. _I cringed, afraid of his reaction to what I had to say.

_Well… I'm going to need you to seduce him… _He gave a questioning look to the paper, which was hard to distinguish from any other look since it was getting darker outside, fast.

_Seduce? Like what I do to girls with my manly charm? _I rolled my eyes. He was funny, but I didn't think he got the seriousness of the situation.

_Yes. Like you do to girls. I need you to whisper sweet nothings to him, sit on his lap, grind into him, kiss him, grope him, _whatever it takes _to relax him enough to push him out of the car._ I finally finished, and Zack read, scanning his eyes over the text a couple of times. He started nervously scratching his thigh, and I gently put my hand over his. I rubbed my thumb on his burning palm slightly and we sat like that for a while. We both sat there for a long time, staring straight ahead, the soundtrack of the time being Max's soft snores.

Finally, Zack took his hand away to steady the notebook in preparation to write again. I listened, and I predicted he only put down a couple of words.

_Youre not kidding, are you. _I pursed my lips and wrote,

_I wouldn't joke about this. You need to seduce him. I'll pretend to sleep. After he moans or closes his eyes; shows some kind of weakness, I'll tap my foot three times. Lift yourself off of him just a little. I'll open the car door, then you push him with all force. Stomp on his fingers to make him let go of the car, and turn the ignition. You know how to drive a car, right? _He took more time to read, then nodded, writing, He looked up at the front of the car, then continued.

_Yeah I do. It's an automatic, so it shouldnt be a problem. Were sure we want to abandon the man thats helped us out so much these past few days? Plus, how the Hell do you now how to use a semicolon? _I rolled my eyes, figuring the punctuation question was rhetorical, but onlyfour words were needed to retort to the second question.

_Dude he molested you._ I heard him growl slightly at the mention, and he nodded to me.

_When should I start? _

_Right now preferably, but you can wait a few minutes to relax yourself. Take however long you want. In fact, maybe we should just wait an hour until he's deeper asleep. _Once he received the paper, he turned the page and started drawing something. He handed me back the paper with a tic-tack-toe board drawn on it. I giggled and played with him for awhile.

After about twenty minutes of tic-tack-toe and some hangman, we stopped because of the lack of light. I put away my notebook, not bothering to erase the previous messages or our games, and looked out to the darkening atmosphere.

I was scared for us.

The horizon (the literal one) looked so beautiful. The color was a dark blue, with a hint of orange mixed at the bottom. The sky above had wisps of clouds covering the scattered stars, but the wisps were just light enough to where you could see the twinkling gases wink at the car. I wondered why no zombies were heading towards us.

I wished that everything was better. No more zombies… no more Max… no more sickness… no more death…

I closed my eyes and listened to the gentle sounds of the lake that was about fifty feet from the car. The steady beat made my heart beat even faster, which made me afraid that Zack would be able to hear. I could practically see the crystalline waves hitting against the shore. I could practically see the light of the ancient light posts reflecting against the choppy waters. I could practically hear the delighted screams of the children skipping through the cold depths…

"_Zack knock it off!" I scream, spitting the bitter water out of my mouth. He just giggles and tosses another armful of water my way. I growl and start running towards him; difficult to do in thick lake water._

"_You will never catch me! I am The Zack Man!" He shouts and kicks more water into my face. When did he turn into such a fish? I curse Mom silently for paying for all those years of swimming lessons. _

_He's now a good couple of yards away, taunting me with silly faces. _

"_I'll get you! You won't even know what hit you!" I warn, but he just laughs._

"_Oh right. Let me guess: water?" I try to run towards him so he can see my mock-gasp._

"_How'd you know?" I roll my eyes and he starts giggling again. _

"_Just a guess!" He shrugs and stays in place so I can splash him with water. _

"_Thanks. It feels nice not to be on the receiving end for once." He shoots his signature smile that warms not only my heart, but my whole body. _

"_No prob. Anything for my little bro." He ruffles my hair and laughs. We stand there, laughing for a bit, when a sudden torrent soaks me again, completely erasing the warm feeling. He starts cackling and running towards the beach. _

"_Ha ha you think you're _so _hilarious, Zack…" I mutter to myself as I bounce off after him to the shore. _

_I reach there just in time as Mom is handing us the Goldfish Crackers in little plastic baggies. _

"_And one for you! Oh, make sure not to get too much sand on the blanket," She warns as she hands me my bag. I turn around to see the amount of sand that I've trailed onto our giant beach blanket. I realize that more than half is from Zack, where his whole entire right leg is covered in it. I roll my eyes and wipe my hands on my swimsuit before taking a Goldfish and splitting it in half with my teeth. _

"_These crackers are made from the Gods! They really should've invented flavor-blasted sooner…" Zack comments as he pours the last of the crumbs into his mouth._

"_How in the world did you eat that so fast!" I shout and he just laughs. _

"_How on Earth can you eat something so delicious, so slow?" _

"_Touché brother." He pushes me. "What? I'm eating as fast as I can!" He pushes me again. "Dude, stop!" With another nudge, I finally open my eyes. _

I woke up to Zack prodding me in the side with his finger. I looked around to see the sky was darker than before, and I nodded to him. He sighed and wrapped me in a hug.

"Good luck, big bro." I smiled and squeezed him tighter.

"Thanks little bro." Before releasing me entirely, he kissed me on the cheek. "I love you…" He whispered even quieter. I couldn't distinguish a brotherly kiss from a romantic kiss anymore.

"I love you too…" He let me go and I leaned back, pretending to be asleep. I heard Zack climb over the seat and to the front. I bit my lip. I hoped everything was going to be okay.

**I am so sorry I just made this a huge cliff hanger, but it's already five pages. Damn flashback. **

**Thank you for your reviews, and seriously Shaman Hime? You like my ramblings? You're the only one I guess : )**

**I've been posting a lot of stories lately, and I've started two more stories, so I completely apologize if I'm late on my update. I have a lot on my plate. **

**This story, I'm going to estimate, is going to be three or four more chapters. I haven't completely decided, and I have a faint idea of how I'm going to end it, but I just need to see where I head this. **

**tl;dr this story is going to end pretty soon, probably in about a month. **

**Thank you very very much for reading!**


	9. Chapter 9

I noticed my heart first start palpating about one hundred times faster once I closed my eyes. A vein in my head did too. It felt like my whole body was moving back and forth on its own accord. With everything so dark, my senses were blurred, and I felt like I wasn't being there for my twin like I should have. But all I could do was listen, yet even my ears felt like they weren't working properly, which was wrong because usually blind people had more of an acute sense of hearing. But I wasn't blind. All I could do was listen. It killed me.

"M… Max…?" Zack whispered in his cute, young, seemingly eight year old voice.

"Zack? What are you d-doing…? You should be getting sleep… so should I…" I heard the distinct sound of a small kiss, which seemed to cause Max to moan. Maybe it was Zack. I couldn't tell. If it was Zack, I just hoped it was just an act. "Zack… we can't do this again." He whispered. My brother giggled a little. I didn't know if I was displeased at his behavior, or just jealous of Max. I pinched myself. _Idiot. _Me? Jealous of _Max_? I didn't think so.

"Why not? You didn't seem to have any problem with it yesterday…" My eyes almost flew open. _Yesterday_! I thought it was just at the hotel! What was Zack not telling me! Max grunted and I could hear the muffled sound of clothes moving around. I guessed that someone was shirtless; probably Zack, then I recognized more sounds of sloppy kissing.

"I'm glad…" More wet, sloppy sounds sounded between each interval of Max's sentence. "That you… Finally realized…" I heard a moan. I dug my nails into the seat. "That I'm…" Moan. Kisses. Nail digging. "The man… for you…" The sounds got sloppier, and the moans started blending together. I heard more clothing sounds, then Zack's worried voice asking,

"But… but what if Cody wakes up?" God, he was too into character for my taste.

"Mm, that's fine. I don't think he will." I heard the distinct sound of turning in a car seat, and then again. "He's fast asleep. He won't wake up." Was I _really _that good at fake sleeping? He _must've _been blinded by lust.

"Good. This won't take long anyway." I could just picture a sly look crawling across Zack's face. I was glad my eyes were closed; I didn't want to see that. I felt like vomiting. I heard them both giggle.

"Oooh Zack… you're so dirty… yet so sexy… you don't know how much I want to fuck you right now…" I dug my nails deep into the seat. All of my instincts were telling me to gouge this man's eyeballs out, but I knew I couldn't. I wouldn't even have the guts too anyway. I'd probably put my hands around his face and stop, only to start apologizing.

"Max, you don't know how much I want you to fuck me…" He giggled. "I never thought I'd be saying that in the middle of a zombie apocalypse." I started to feel the stuffing of the seat. Zack was never permitted to talk like that ever again.

"Well, we could, if you really wanted to." Max offered. I ground my teeth together to stop myself from saying anything stupid. Not just saying anything stupid, but saying anything at all.

"Sure, but take your pants all the way off…" I heard rustling, and then the sound of a belt hitting the ground. "Better… but first, let me do…"

"Oh Zaaack…" He sighed. "Cody doesn't know how… _uhn…_ lucky he is to… to… to have a brother like _you…_" I guessed Zack was giving our guardian a blowjob. His once pure lips, now no longer innocent on the account of Max Callen-Meek's filthy manhood. My mind went back to the day Zack gave me a blowjob, but I decided that it was irrelevant. My manhood wasn't dirty…

I squinted my eyes open to see my own brother huddled down in front of Max. I internally cursed at myself for looking, but it was a perfect time. I tapped my foot once, twice, three times. Max suddenly screamed and I opened the door as fast as I could, to find it was locked. I cursed at myself again and scrambled to unlock the door, as Max screamed louder and louder. Was Zack… biting him? I felt a small pang of sympathy, but I stopped feeling it, fast. I managed to open the door, and Zack pushed with all of his might to shove the man out of the car. He slammed the door shut and I locked it while he looked for the keys in Max's pants.

I couldn't help but stare at Max while Zack started the car. It would be the last time I ever saw the man again, and he sure was looking his finest. Lying face down on the ground, rolling, clutching his length, still screaming. He was the epitome of a struck down pedophile. Joy bubbled in my stomach. The low rumble of the engine sounded, and Zack rolled down the window and yelled,

"Take a seat over there!" We laughed and I jumped in the front seat as we drove off, leaving Max in the dust. It was a bumpy departure, but after we calmed down, Zack asked a very important question: "So… where are we going?"

"Uh… well Washington still, I suppose. We just need to get back on I-90. So… I'm going to guess, take a right… right here. Then once we get to the highway, take a left so we'll be heading north. Yeah… right here. That turn was so illegal… anyway, all we need to do is follow this, and basically we can go anywhere in the United States."

"Cody, how do you know that?" I focused on the zombies running towards us. They were way creepier in the dark.

"I paid attention in geography, unlike _some _people…" I joked and we started heading onto the freeway. "Well how do you know how to drive so well?" He laughed. It was true, his driving was better than the average fifteen year-olds'.

"Well unlike _some _people, instead of listening to the dumb shit they talk about in high school, focused on the important stuff, like driving!"

"Touché brother… touché…" I leaned forward to turn on the radio. I switched the station to some smooth jazz.

"Seriously dude?" Zack question as he swerved dangerously close to an upright zomboid.

"What!" I asked defensively. It felt like old times, which I had to admit, made me uncomfortable. We were in the middle of a possibly apocalyptic outbreak, and we were still _arguing _like we were back in our suite? I really wished that we started to act a _little _more serious.

"Smooth jazz. Bro. We're fightin' zombies here. Gimme some jams that I can rock to." I rolled my eyes.

"Well actually, jazz is known to stimulat-,"

"I don't _neeeeed _to be stimulated, I ne-,"

"ZACK PAY ATTENTION TO THE ROAD!" I held onto the arm rest tightly as Zack nearly crashed into a car coming up on our rear.

"Whoops…" I crossed my arms and looked into the rearview mirror at the perpetrator that almost made us crash. Well, it was Zack's fault, but that was beside the point. When I first looked up, I was scared that it was going to be Max. Although why would it be? He was probably dead. The person driving, to my relief, was a woman. She had short black hair, but that's all I could tell. Her hair probably wasn't even black. It was probably the shadows playing tricks.

I ignored her and decided to ask Zack something that had been itching at the back of my mind.

"So why do you think no zombies were swarming our car while we were just sitting there?" I asked as Zack started to keep a constant speed of seventy. He gave me a side-ways glance and squinted.

"What are you talking about?"

"Stop messing around, I'm serious!" I leaned back and grabbed a protein bar from the open suitcase.

"Dude, can you grab me one too?"

"Zack!"

"I'm hungry!" I sighed.

"That's not my point! I asked you a question, and you answered with something stupid. I'm not joking; why weren't there zombies around our car?" I handed him a bar and he didn't shrug or anything.

"You stop messing around!" He retorted, then opened the bar with one hand and ate half of it in one bite. I took a smaller bite and stared out my window in anger.

"Zack will you stop it!" I noticed the other car start to pass us.

"Stop what! You stop! You're acting stupid!"

"How am _I _acting stupid!"

"Okay, maybe not stupid, but you're acting _crazy!_"

"What?" He slammed on the breaks. He could seriously tone down on the drama. He turned and starting speaking low, spitting crumbs all over.

"There _were _zombies around the car, Cody. I have no idea what the _fuck _you're talking about, or if you're just messing with me, but it's not that funny anymore." I was speechless. He started speeding up, making me feel like he was leaving my brain behind. What…?

"Well obviously you're the one that was hallucinating back there, because it was _apparent _that there were _no _zombies!" He stuffed the rest of the bar into his mouth.

"Okaaay…" His voice wavered. But it made me start to think: how can you hallucinate something _not _being there? It didn't make any sense. So I was right.

"Whatever…" I said as crossly as possible, because I was sick of his bull. But I tried to keep my head clear. New topic. "So… what happened yesterday with you and Max?" I asked calmly.

"What do you mean?"

"Well when you kissed Max, he asked what you were doing, and you said something like he didn't have a problem with it yesterday. What was up with that?" He was quiet for longer than a moment. "Zack?"

"Hm?"

"You okay?"

"What do you mean?"

"Exactly what I said. Are you okay?"

"Yeah. Why?"

"I asked you a question. What's wrong with you? You're acting pretty weird."

"Really?" I facepalmed.

"Yes really! I asked you a question."

"Oh. Well what was the question again?" My twin was going crazy.

"What happened yesterday between you and Max?"

"Well…" More seconds. "After Max and I killed, well, his grandma-,"

"You killed his grandma?" I was shocked. I really hoped he was talking about the zombified version of the grandmother.

"Duh. She was a zombie. Anyway, after that, I kind of… well… I started making out with Max…"

"_Pardon_? Do you mean, consensually?"

"What is 'consexually' mean? Anti-sexual? No, it was pretty sexual." I didn't need to hear that from my own brother.

"Seriously, do you spend _anytime _in class actually learning. It's _consensually _not _consexually._" I realized my mistake. "Anyway, it means for the act to be a mutual agreement. So you both agreed t-,"

"Okay Mr Smarty Pants I get it. I guess he didn't, really… _exaaactly _force me to do it with him. I just kissed him and-,"

"_You kissed, __him_?" He nodded. "What? Why? He's a pedophile! Zack! Why would you do that!" I yelled, popping my ears in the process.

"Well, ya know, I've been pretty much chalk-full of sexual tension since the other day. And _you _were no help… so… I went to the next best thing."

"MAX IS THE NEXT BEST THING?" I screamed.

"Cody, quiet! To answer that, yes. He's the only one who wouldn't eat my face off in that town…" He paused. "In the 'thirsting for my flesh' kind of way…" Another pause, "Okay, well he's the only one who wasn't a zombie, okay?" I felt betrayed, angry, _jealous_. I couldn't _understand _my jealousy though. I mean, Zack was my twin I guessed, and he had the right to _make out _with whomever he wanted, but _Max_? _Really_?

I propped my head onto my fist and stared into the darkness. I felt stupid. I felt like a girl for feeling that way.

"Cody, don't give your puppy-dog eyes to the window. It did nothing to you. Besides, you're the one that said twincest was gross or something." I couldn't imagine the scene with the two of them without _gagging. _It was gross. It wasn't right. Max was like, ten years older than us!

"I guess…" I mumbled. My breath fogged up the glass. Getting an idea, I wrote, '_This sucks' _backwards.

**1/16/11 9:08 P.M.**

Looking at the date, I've realized that it's only been four days since we left Boston. It's just weird; it sure seems like it's been longer.

Max is gone. Because of me, Zack 'seduced' him and then we pushed him out of the car. I felt bad about making Zack do that, but _apparently _he had been releasing sexual tension with Max yesterday by making out with him. It's like betrayal. To bad he lost his 'make-out' buddy now. Now we're on the road, heading out to… I don't really know. I'm not sure what state, but we're still on the road to The Evergreen State. Zack's driving, but I'm sure that'll change soon. It's weird, the one thing I'm fearing most right now is not that we get eaten by zombies (we're in a car, that couldn't happen unless they had somehow infiltrated it), but is us getting pulled over for being underage drivers. We have a legitimate excuse, but I don't know if they'd accept us. If they would, they'd probably quarantine us for fear of infection. Society is starting to look… somewhat normal. Cars are passing by us, probably survivors, and I've seen a lot of helicopters overhead. Less fires on the roads, less zombies, it's kind of surreal now.

Oh, and something weird happened related to the 'less zombies' thing. When we were in the car, I thought it was weird that no zombies were attacking the car. I ventured it was because we were in a small town, but I asked Zack, and he said that there were zombies around the car. I pushed it off as a stupid idea, but maybe he was right.

But how could I have suppressed an image that was _right there_ in my mind? Personally, I think Zack was hallucinating. He's been really quiet too. Well, not quiet. More like out of it. I would ask him a question and a few seconds later he'd say, "What?" But maybe he is right. It's possible that I might be crazy. Although 'crazy people' aren't crazy if they admit they're crazy, right?

Am I crazy?

End journal.

**You guys like my rambles? Weird. My friends sure don't. **

**Well I'm kind of fond of this chapter, and for a while I've been debating with myself if I should add an extra chap at the end of the story to show Zack's POV on this situation, but after finishing this chapter up, I've decided against it. I've added and taken **_**a lot **_**from Zack and Max's scene. I'm pretty okay with it, all though I think it **_**may **_**have ended up a little more monotonous than I liked it to. I've been thinking that about **_**all **_**of my stories lately though.**

**Oh, and a question, do you think the sentence "He's the older twin" is an oxymoron? My friend says it is, but I don't think so. Twins aren't born at the same time. **

**Thank you SOO much for your most helpful reviews, and I hope I've cleared up some confusing details from earlier chapters. Oh, and I've switched the dates on the last two chapters to the correct date in the journal. They both said the 15****th****, which was incorrect. Come on guys! You were supposed to catch that! I guess I was supposed to first, though… **

**Thank you for reading!**


	10. Chapter 10

"Driving is boring, boring, boring! Driving is boring all night looong!" Zack sung in a 'Wheels on the Bus' sort of tune as he swerved the car back and forth on the now, almost white, road. Thanks to it being South Dakota and all, it was snowing. The sun was rising, so personally it was kind of blinding, but Zack apparently didn't have a problem. "ARGH driving is _sooo _boring!"

"I think you're on a night high." I commented sourly. "Stop swerving!"

"Night? It's not night. It's morning. I'm not sure what you're talking about. And swerving is fun. It keeps me awake." I sighed and tapped my forehead, letting my breath fog up the glass.

"If this keeps you awake, I'm driving. You seriously need a break."

"Psh nah. I'm cool. I'm awake enough. It's just really boring!"

"I got that from your lovely… uhm… _tune._"

"Oh you like that, huh? Is this a request for an encore?"

"Zack ple-,"

"DRIVING IS SO BO-OR-RING, OR-ORING, OR-ORING. DRIVING IS SO… I'm hungry." I was happy he stopped singing, but his swerving continued, making me continuously nervous.

"Zack, please stop the car. I'm driving."

"_Nooo_! I'm _fine_." He always got like that when he was tired. In fact, he almost sounded like a drunk trying to convince me he was sober. Yeah right.

"I'm serious. Stop the car, please."

"Fine!"

"_Oof!_" He suddenly slammed the breaks, causing me to jolt forward in my seat at the force. I put my hands forward to stop my head from colliding into the dashboard, but I ended up hitting my hands, causing my head to instantly throb. "Zaack! What gives! I said 'stop' not-,"

"You told me to stop! So I did." I mumbled a Shakespearean insult under my breath and leaned back to get him a gross protein bar.

"Fine. Either eat this or let me drive." I held the bar threateningly, inches from his face. He and I both knew he hated the stuff.

"That's just cruel, man."

"So is the way you're driving!" I complained. He closed his eyes and leaned back in his seat.

"_Fine_. Fine fine fine." He gave up and reached for his buckle. "Gimme the bar."

"What!" I shouted and bringing the bar closer to my chest. "Don't unbuckle if you're going to eat it! I mean you're going to either eat it and drive or not eat it and sleep so-,"

"I want to keep driving. I was just adjusting it a little, sheesh calm down. Bar please?" He smiled mischievously. I shook my head and he shrugged. "I'm going to keep driving, regardless then." He threatened, and I gave up, handing him the bar and leaning my head against the glass. I heard the crinkling of the wrapper, and a disgusted 'ew' from Zack as he took his first bite. "Man," The car started rolling forward as he put pressure on the gas, "These suck, but seriously. I'm kind of feeling energized already. I mean I have been this past hour, I've just been so _bored_."

"I'm telling you." I sat up and placed my hands in front of myself. "You're not 'energized'. You're just really hyper from being up all night." I reasoned, but he drove faster into the oncoming, light shower of snow. Luckily no cars were around.

"Awh screw it." He leaned into the steering wheel, unrolling his window and tossing the half-eaten 'breakfast' out the window.

"Zack! I told you to eat that!"

"And I threw it out the window! So?" He pressed the button to roll up the window again, but I shook my head.

"Wait, dude."

"Why? Warm or something? I'm not."

"No no no…" I heard a faint buzzing coming from outside. I kept my hand palm-out in front of me, keeping myself completely still as I focused on the growing noise.

"What the Hell are you doing?"

"Don't you hear that?"

"Hear it from your side. I'm not keeping this open." I rolled my eyes and sighed. He was being so stubborn ever since the night before.

I clicked the 'down' button and leaned my head out of the window a little. I stared at the mirror as I listened to the noise. Even though I was focused on the noise, I couldn't help but notice how grimy I was from my reflection. Ew.

The buzzing grew louder, and I adjusted my mirror so I could see the road behind us, and sure enough, a growing shape was appearing in the distance.

"Zack, slow down. Like, legal speed." The shape grew bigger, and I soon realized it was some sort of Hummer.

"Stop being so _prude. _See that? I used a big word."

"Five letters Zack. That's not big. Just slow do-,"

"Not-uh! That's six let-… Oh you're right. Why do you want me to slow down? Feelin' _carsick_? If you throw up, I'm going to be forced to kick you out." The car got closer and it appeared as a yellow color. It was going _fast_.

"ZACK SLOW DOWN!"

"FINE!" He slammed on the break, making me slam my forehead against my hands again, but then I was greeted with a giant white shape.

_The airbag. _

Everything seemed to go in slow-mo as I felt myself being lifted off my seat a little, then back down, then back up again, leaving me in a sort of suspended position.

Crashing sounds filled the seemingly dead air. Suddenly, a jolt of pain greeted my whole face with an insane pressure, and I began to taste blood. After a couple seconds of groaning because of the pain, I realized that I was upside-down. My face was smushed against the airbag, which was slowly deflating. My body started to slip from my seatbelt a little. I kept my eyes closed, then braced my stomach against the seatbelt that was digging into me. I slowly lifted my hand to my bleeding face. I ran it over my nose to feel both orifices were bleeding. I touched my lip to discover it was split and bleeding too.

Then I remembered Zack.

A loud, continuous 'beep' sounded as I groaned his name. "_Zaack…_?" I didn't get an answer, or if I did, I couldn't hear it over the horn. "_Zack?_" I turned myself around and unbuckled my seatbelt, causing my whole body to land heavily onto the _ceiling_ of the car. Attempting to think clearly, I took my shirt off and pressed it against my nose and mouth. I rubbed my eyes and cleared my blurry vision to see Zack's head pressed against the car horn. The sound was deafening. I crawled forward, my whole body sore, and reached my hand to block the contact between the button and his head. The peaceful silence started, and my head began to clear. My face just really hurt.

"C-Cody…?" Even though his blond hair was greasy and covering his eyes, I could see him opening his eyes. "Hey…" He greeted.

"Hey." I smiled as he reached for his seatbelt.

"AAAAAAHHHHH!" He screamed. Out of shock, and shot my hand back, blaring the horn because of his head. My head starting throbbing again until I replaced my hand.

"What's wrong? What happened? Are you okay?"

"My side… it hurts… really bad…" He groaned more, probably realizing how much pain he was in.

"The ceiling isn't far. It's like a foot. If you just get yourself unbuckled, I can see what's wrong." My voice was muffled, but he nodded slightly.

"It hurts so bad though."

"I know. Just unbuckle. Here, I'll even sit under you so your fall isn't so dramatic." I kept my hand on the side of his head and let my shirt drop into my lap. I stretched out my left arm. Slowly, he pressed the seatbelt button. I released his head and put both of my hands out to lower him down, all as he was screaming 'ow'.

"Oooh my _God it hurts so bad…_" He groaned when he finally lay down on the ceiling, his head in my lap. I was sitting criss-cross, so his head was more on my ankles then anything.

"Sh…" I put the cloth over my face again and commanded him to take off his shirt. As he tried, I leaned back and flipped over a suitcase for the first aid kit. I managed to catch a peek out of the window to see tall grass everywhere. It looked like wheat, but I imagined they were just weeds.

"I can't…" He sighed, then grunted in pain again. I dropped the shirt once again, apologizing for any blood that landed on his face. I had to lean over him to grip the bottom of his shirt. Gently, I pulled the black material up to reveal a large purple bruise that looked like a purple eye shadow compact exploded on his side. But it was an actual bruise. I sighed. It had to be a cracked rib. I clicked my tongue and brushed my finger over the bruised epidermis. "AHH CODY DON'T FUCKING TOUCH IT! Gah…" He screamed. I could tell he instantly regretted the outburst, since it made his lungs expand against his ribcage because of the effort.

"Can you lift your arms."

"No." He said crossly. I guessed I couldn't fathom his pain.

"I'm just going to cut your shirt off then, okay?" He cringed. I grabbed the scissors from the safety kit and cut the shirt down the middle, then at the sleeves so it lay under him. "I need to put some medical tape on it, but I also have to put your arm in a sling." I thought hard back to my training at school. "But we also need to get out of the car and find help." He grunted and I put the cloth, yet again, over my face.

"Erg… yeah right. We're… in an apoca… lypse. Everyone's look… ing for help."

"They're seeking safety. What we need is medical attention."

"'Cause I'm sure… there's going to be an ambu… lance driving along the highway this… early… and in the middle of… nowhere." His words were far apart.

"It's worth a shot. What else are we going to do, huh? Not to mention that someone has to have a bit more experience then me. I mean the most serious medical help I've ever had to give anyone was giving you butterfly stitches on your eyebrow last year. And that was nothing. Just work with me, okay? I'm trying to help you." He opened one eye and stared up at me.

"Maybe it'd just be best… if you went… without me… You could make it… on your own… I know… you could…" My lip started to tremble and my eyes started to well up as I watched him force out the painful words. Sadness and anger balled together in the pit of my stomach. I glowered at him.

"No way Zack. I am never leaving you. Not now, not then, not _ever_. We're in this together now. We will make it through somehow. Stop being such a freaking pessimist. We're twins. You're my reflection. If I leave you, I'm missing a huge part of me and I… I…" Tears started to drip down my face, mixing with blood droplet escapees, and landing in his hair.

"Cody… stop… that…" Through my shaky vision, I saw his eyes get glossy too. "I get it… we won't leave each other. Now just… fix me…" He sighed. "Please…" I knew my brother wasn't great with compassionate moments, but I was a little hurt by his attitude. It made me realize I really was the weaker twin.

I mean there I was, blood, sweat, and tears pouring out of my face onto my older brother, who was just telling me to basically shut up and help him. I pursed my lips and willed myself to stop crying.

"Sorry for the blood. Now just relax. This is going to hurt… a little." I blinked away the saline, put the shirt down, and took out the medical tape, stretching a long piece of tape out and placing it over the bruise, a little above the offending rib.

"Owww-ch…" His breathing became shallower.

"This is going to hurt. Exhale. Then lift your torso off the ground… erm ceiling a little. I need to make the tape go under you." He groaned and did as I circled the tape around his torso two times. I shifted the tape, and started wrapping under the rib. "Now every hour or so, you're going to have to breathe deeply. It'll be painful but you have to." He gave no indication that he heard me. His mouth was oscitant in a silent scream and his eyes were closed.

I tied off the tape and quickly put my shirt on my face again. I leaned back and let the blood coagulate for a while. I was getting cold, but I didn't care. I was tired of bleeding all over the place. I applied pressure on my lip and groaned. I grabbed a water bottle and wetted the shirt to make my lip feel better.

"_Cody…_?"

"Huh."

"Why're you so… nice?" He asked quietly.

"I don't know. Because being mean didn't work out very well."

"Oh." I put more pressure onto my lip, then leaned my head foreword, testing my lip for blood. Since there was none, I started flipping over the suitcases to prepare for our departure. "_What're _you doing…?" I heard my brother weakly ask from behind me.

"Getting ready to go."

"_No…_"

"Zack. We have to go some time, and I'd prefer it to be sooner than later. What if a zombie sneaks up to us while we're sleeping the day away. Either one, we get eaten because we're sleeping. Two, I pee my pants because I'm a wuss and we both die because you're pretty much useless in defense right now."

"Hey…"

"It's true." I grabbed a pack of gum and stuffed it in my pocket, then a bottle of hand sanitizer. I grabbed a protein bar too, and started unwrapping it.

"Is there a… third outcome?" I laughed at my inner wit for what I was about to say.

"By some miracle, you heal instantly and save us, lifting the car into the sky, back onto the road, and get us on our way to Seattle." He grunted out a small laugh and I added, "Then we're greeted by President Bush, when suddenly protein bars rain down from the sky in thanks."

"It's possible…" He ventured. I took a bite out of the disgusting thing.

"I didn't finish. They rain down, and then we indulge, eating every last one."

"Not possible."

"Thank you." I comment back snarkily.

I took the pistol case from the suitcase, then the shotgun case.

"Cody… you wouldn't be able to handle the recoil on that thing…" He warned quietly. I wondered how he even saw me, since I was pretty much blocking the path of vision.

Taking his advice, I put the shotgun case back into the suitcase and just grabbed the second pistol case.

"Are they loaded?"

"Yeah… can I have some fruit snacks… or something?" I handed him a small pack of fruit snacks and continue packing for the adventure up the grassy hill. I guessed that if it were any other circumstance that an adventure up a hill wouldn't be a problem, but with a handicapped teenager, a weak twin, two heavy suitcases and a backpack, it was going to be tougher then expected.

"This is going to be awesome…" I growled under my breath. I felt a little more mature recognizing that, but not that much tougher. "Ready to go, bro?"

"No."

"Good." I crawled to the front seat where he was dormant and tried to kick the window out. Expecting it to shatter, I almost fell into Zack when it didn't. "Sorry!"

"Those are made to… withstand crashes like these. It's not going anywhere."

"Then neither are we… unless…" I looked back at the gun cases on the ground and reached for one.

"Seriously. That's your solution? You're as bad as me now…"

"I highly doubt that… I just want to get out of here."

"By shooting out the window. Genius."

"Don't give me attitude mister."

"Sorry Mommy." I cocked the gun, braced my ears, and shot the window, making safety glass fly everywhere. "Ow. Glass."

"Sorry." I apologized, put the safety on the gun and peeked out the window. I stepped out of the car, landing on rough, tall grass. Or weeds. I couldn't tell. I turned around to see the flipped Elemental. It was surreal.

I looked around for any threats and was relieved to see the most dangerous thing was probably the freeway. I leaned into the car and handed Zack the gun, then leaned further to grab the suitcase. I dropped it onto the ground, then retrieved the second one. Then the backpack. Soon, everything was on the ground except Zack and the gun.

I grabbed two shirts out of the bag for the both of us and slipped one on.

"Are you ready to go, Zack?" He groaned loudly and tilted his head back so he could see me, upside-down.

"_Noooooooo…_"

"Oh poor Zacky-poo."

"How am I… going to do this?" I leaned in and grabbed his shoulders.

"Just wiggle towards me." He did, and he was about halfway out of the broken window.

"This is safety glass… but it's cutting into my back…"

"Then work a little." He grunted and squirmed until I was holding onto the belt loops of his pants. It was really just an uncomfortable position.

"Owww…" He complained. I got on my knees and dragged him out all the way until he was basically lying on top of me. I stayed forward and exhaled. My fingers were still wrapped around his belt loops and he was resting on my lap. Not even my ankles. "Cody… I'm uncomfortable."

"Sorry. Get up then."

"No, I mean I'm in… pain." We sat like that for a couple minutes, and it was nice, but unfortunately, easily comparable to our time at the hotel.

"Okay Zackary. It's time to get up now." I wiggled out from underneath him, leaving his head resting on the tall weeds. I shook the snow out of my hair, realizing how cold I was without my brother's body heat. I reached into the suitcase, quickly, and grabbed two sweatshirts. I slipped mine on, and was pleasantly surprised to see Zack hiking himself up off of the ground. "You got it?"

"I guess." He took another shallow breath, and slowly got himself up to my height.

"Okay, I'm going to make a sling for you. Do you want a jacket? Or do you just want the sling?"

"Sling. I'm not cold." I laughed inwardly. I felt like a mom. I knew he was going to be cold later, but I just went with it.

I wrapped the two sweatshirt sleeves and tied them around his neck, then gingerly placed his arm in the bundle.

"Why do I need a sling?"

"So it doesn't hurt your side as much. Now just hold this backpack on your shoulder…" I put it on his shoulder. "And carry this gun. I'll get the suitcases." I pulled the handles up and plowed over the tall grass, shaking my head every so often to rid it of the extra snow. I looked back every so often, seeing Zack struggling, but not enough to where I would stop. I figured we were close to the top when I heard a gunshot. "ZACK!"

I spun quickly to catch him trying to steady his gun with one hand. He was pointed to a… shuffling patch of grass.

"Zack hurry up! We'll take care of it when we get up here! Hurry!" I reached the top and dropped everything. I ran back and grabbed the gun from him, almost making it fire upon contact. "Come on!" I looked back to see the patch still again.

"It moved. There's something there, I swear."

"I know. Get a move on, please." He started shuffling up the hill and I put my back against his for support.

After thirty painful seconds, we both made it to the top. With shallow breaths, Zack sat on his suitcase and caught himself from almost toppling over.

"I hate this…" He complained in agony. I walked over and put my hand over his shoulders.

"I know I know. You'll be healed in no time." I knew it was a lie. It would take at least six weeks for him to heal.

"No, not that." He craned his neck to look at me, smiling sadly. "I hate being the prey." I was curious as to why he was smiling, but I let it pass.

"Oh. You and I both bro. I feel bad for animals now." He cocked his eyebrow.

"Are you comparing _us _to animals?"

"Well according to Darwin, we evolved from them, so yes, I am." I squeezed his shoulder softly and he rolled his eyes.

"You're such a… nerd." His breathing became softer, and he started to stare at the road again.

The scene was very peaceful. Seeing the tall, pale brown grass sway back and forth across the high way, the cracked, snow-covered, grey asphalt stretched not too far. The snow softly falling from the sunny, cold sky. It was beautiful, but pain still ached everywhere, physical and mental.

"Thanks, Cody."

"Thanks?" I sighed and watched the puff cloud rise above us.

"Yeah, thanks."

"For what?" I stepped closer to him, pressing myself lightly against his left arm that was protecting his rib. I was about a foot taller than him, considering he was leaning against the suitcase.

"Being there for us. You're the smart one. If you weren't here, I'd be in Montana, getting it on with Max in the back seat of his Elemental." I cringed, remembering Max. "Thanks to you, I'm comfortable with a cracked rib and a crushed car. No evil dude either."

"Our current situation is better than that? We _were _safer with him." Zack leaned his head onto my stomach.

"I know. We _were _safer with him, but I _feel _safer with you. And I'd take that any day." His logic was flawed, but he knew what he said, and said what he knew. "Plus, here, there's love. There, no love." I hummed softly in agreement and craned my neck to check for any dangers. Seeing none, I leaned down and pecked my twin's cheek. I stood straight again, and Zack said, "I'm glad we have love. I don't care what kind. But it's here, and I'm okay with that."

Zack may have been pretty thick, but he sure could be pretty damn beautiful when he wanted to.

"That was pretty deep, I have to say. Did you get a concussion too?" I laughed, but he snorted.

"How could you say that? I was completely serious!" I guessed he would've crossed his arms, but he just huffed.

"I'm sorry. It's just strange. You aren't normally like this."

"Well neither are you. You're never really the leader. The tough leader anyway."

"I was kind of forced into this position."

"That's what she said." Way to go, Zack. Always making serious moments 'funny'.

"Bro, seriously?"

"I was simply letting you know that I don't have a concussion. I'm still Zack, no matter what I say."

"I guess I'll keep that in mind…?" His hand covered mine that was on his shoulder, and the cold disappeared for a second.

"Love you."

"_I_ love you too." 'Love you' and 'I love you' were two different things, and I knew that I felt the latter.

"Sorry. I love you too. Again." We laughed, and suddenly I heard a whirring.

"Hear that?"

"What?"

"I swear…" I commented on his hearing ability, then focused on the noise. "It's a car…"

"Really?" I looked at the horizon to see a black blob heading our direction.

"See?"

"Yeah! Ouch…"

"Stand up." He did, standing as straight as possible to not put any weight on his wound. I did too, trying to make a good first impression on whoever might stop, but I bet I didn't look too great with my split lip and dried blood on my upper lip. Not to mention how greasy I was.

The car approached, and it was an easily recognizable 'Mom' soccer van.

"Do you think there are kids our age in it?"

"I doubt it. I'm going to guess that the minors left are mostly zero to two. I think moms and babies are inseparable, but I think that they'd abandon a four year-old for their own life."

"True." I took my arm away from Zack and started waving, making sure we couldn't be mistaken for a zombie.

"HEY!" I shouted as the car neared about twenty feet. "STOP!" I shouted louder, and the car slowed a bit. Soon, it was right in front of us. The tinted windows rolled down to reveal a red, curly-haired women in the passenger seat, and what looked like a average looking guy driving. I squinted to try to see what the woman was cradling in her arms, and it looked like a small baby (called it), but I couldn't tell.

"Hey. Where are you boys from?" The lady asked, then turned her attention back to what she was cuddling and cooed.

"Boston. You?"

"Cleveland. What's wrong with the other one? Your twin, right?" I nodded and moved closer to the car.

"We just got in a car accident and he-," I was quickly interrupted.

"_Accident_? You look hardly old enough to be in high school!"

"I know I know, but when these things happen, we have to take extra precautionary measures to survive."

"I understand. You can come closer, we won't bite." She winked and smiled. I turned to Zack and put my hand out for him to wait, then stepped closer to the van. I got up to the window to see the lady _was _holding a baby. It looked rather sick. "Anyway, so what happened? You got in an accident and…?" I looked in the back of the car, surprised to see another teenager. He looked about seventeen, had thick, curly dark hair and black framed glasses. He also had braces. He waved, I waved back, then answered the lady's question.

"We rolled down the hill, and he cracked his rib. I got a split lip, see?" I pointed to my mouth, then almost facepalmed, realizing that she could probably see that without my direction.

"Ouchie! Well if you want, you can stay with us!" She exclaimed happily. I looked down to see the baby start to cry. "This here is Jessica, this is Robert," She pointed to the man sitting in the driver seat, who looked extremely bored. "And back there is Woody."

"Well where are you guys headed? I don't want us to end up being a bother."

"Oh you'll be no trouble at all, dear! No, we're going to Montana. My friend Darla says it's safe! Come on! It'll be fun! Woody's been complaining on how bored he's been." I shrugged and she suddenly exclaimed in pain. "OUCH!" I looked down to see the baby having a firm grip on wrist, with her _mouth_. She wouldn't let go, and blood started dripping from the bite.

"Oh my God…" I whispered, backing up slowly.

"Mom?" Woody exclaimed from the back seat.

"Cody!" I turned to see Zack shuffling over towards me, eyes squinting in pain. "What happened? What's happening?" He rushed over to the window, then saw the mom crying. The dad looked pained. The mother looked up at us, eyes red. She coughed out a 'no', then held the baby closer to her chest.

"Kara, you need to let the baby go. Just throw it out the window. These young men can handle it." The father patted Kara's shoulder.

"Excuse me! We'd rather _not, _thank you!" Zack growled.

"Fine." The father narrowed his eyes at us, not breaking eye contact as he spoke to Kara. "Darling. Get out of the car. Now."

"No, honey! I want to stay with you!" She turned back to him, baby still clutched to her chest.

"I'm getting out of here!"

"Woody, no!" The sliding door opened, and a rather portly teenager stepped out. "You get back here, young man!"

"I'm not getting killed by my own mother!" He exclaimed. The father growled and leaned over his wife, opening the door wide.

"Robert, no!" He cut her seatbelt, kicked her, and squealed the car away, leaving the door to slam itself. "No-ho-ho-ho…" She sobbed on the ground, and I was stunned. I couldn't really comprehend all that had happened.

Woody kneeled down next to her and patted her back.

"It's okay, Mom. I still love you, no matter what. It's okay." The significantly larger son patted his mom on the back, then backed up and back towards us. He held his hands up to his face and started crying violently. "I-I-I l-love y-ou Mommy-ee-ee!" He cried out and stomped the ground. I patted his shoulder softly.

"It'll be okay, Woody." I nervously looked at the convulsing woman on the ground. Zack gave me the 'eye', and handed me the gun. I stood on my tiptoes and whispered in Woody's ear, "Ready to say goodbye, Woody?" He sniffed, nodded, and sighed. Kara stopped moving, and Woody said,

"Good bye, Mommy. _See you soon._"

"WOODY, NO!" The bullet pierced the morning air hard, scattering pieces of his hair and brain everywhere. I felt even grosser, and tears started rolling down my face. It was all too much. I didn't even know the guy.

I leaned down, attempting not to look at the body, and picked the bloody gun with two fingers. I wiped it on my pants, then aimed it on the rising Kara.

"_Focus, Cody. It's okay._" Zack comforted me from behind, and I pulled the trigger. She fell instantly, almost on top of her wriggling zombie baby. "Kill it too."

"'It's' a _she_…" I whispered, and picked it off too. I closed my eyes and sighed. "Let's go…" I put the gun on safety and walked back towards the suitcases.

"Alright…" Zack whispered.

**Super long chapter, and sorry for the week delay. Major writer's block, but I'm happy with how this turned out. I don't like Woody, so I figured I'd just add him as a little Easter egg. **

**This series is drawing to a close, so be prepared for, probably, two more awesome chapters. Originally this was going to be the last chapter, but it was getting long, and it was a good place to stop.**

**Thank you for reviewing and reading, I appreciate you all so much. **


	11. Chapter 11

With each step I grew more and more worried about what _our _future was going to look like. Sure, the United States, and possibly the rest of world was going to turn into complete turmoil, but that didn't mean that Zack and I had to end up that way.

After at least an hour of walking, Zack's small grunts had turned into louder whines of pain, and my heart wrenched with every step. The question of where we were going was burning in both of our minds, I was sure, was where we were going and when we were going to get there. What would be in store for us.

With Zack being hurt, we were going extremely slow, and since we were going so slow, we were colder than ever. Regular Zack, the one who was always in charge and making fun of everything, was now limping and staying completely silent, other than his shallow breathing making quite a bit of noise. Regular ol' me, the one who was always shying away from things and being smart, was forced into a position of leadership, which was stressful. For me anyway. Apparently I over thought as a leader, because Zack didn't seem to have a problem with it when he was leader.

"Is that another car?" I whispered over the sound of the rolling suitcases. I turned to Zack, who was a close as he could get without bumping into me, and he shook his head. I turned around anyway to see nothing. "Hm. Do you think we should sleep soon?" I stopped and checked my watch. It said 2:52. "Are you hungry? I guess it's a little too early too sleep. Should we stop? Are you okay?" Zack rolled his eyes and kept walking. I hoped that we'd reach some city too. I didn't plan on it, and I knew there were consequences to finding a city, but the consequences definitely didn't match up to what could possibly happen to us being on the road for much longer. "It's weird not having you talk, you know. Are you okay?" I asked again. It really was strange. Even after the accident he was still pretty chatty, but then he turned pretty stoic.

"Hm. Fine."

"We're going to stop."

"Why." I stopped, and after walking a couple feet, he stopped too.

"Because you're obviously in a lot of pain! I'm tired of seeing you like this, so it's time for you to take a break!" I yelled. I looked up into the sky in impatience to see bits of white start to fall. "Great. Perfect. This is just awesome. This is-,"

"The ice on top of the highway?" Zack offered weakly, and I smiled. "I told you… I'm still Zack." He may have still been Zack, but he was a sickly looking one at that.

"Right. Well do you think we should keep moving or not." He pointed a finger ahead and nodded. "Alright. I don't know what we're expecting to find but… fine. We'll see how this goes." I ran ahead a little to catch up and kept walking. We must've been going a pace of seven miles per hour at most.

After another ten minutes of walking, Zack stopped and dropped the guncase he was carrying.

"Zack?" He gaped and pointed ahead. "What…?" I squinted to see a small cluster of buildings off the side of the freeway.

"W-what…?" Zack gasped out. He bent down to grab the gun, but grunted and yelped in pain.

"I got it." I bent down and grabbed the gun.

"I'm not seeing things… right…?" He asked and took the gun from my hands.

"No way bro. This is for real. Come on. The faster we get there, the faster we're out of this weather."

"Unless…" I rolled my eyes and didn't look at him.

"I know. Don't be pessimistic though." In about five minutes, we arrived in front of a small sign that said, 'Farmer, South Dakota'. "Farmer…" I bent down to read the small print underneath, and it read 'POPULATION: 27'. "Twenty-six people live here. I really hope not all twenty-six coming running towards us in a thirsting for blood mind frame." I muttered.

"Vampires."

"What?"

"Vampires thirst for blood. Not zombies…" He murmured and started to walk ahead. Either he was getting really grumpy or really sick. I caught up with him and we followed a road that lead to about twenty buildings. Two of them looked like businesses, one looked somewhat like a town hall, and all the rest regular houses.

"This is surreal…" I whispered to myself. I looked up to Zack, and he just nodded.

I ran up to one of the houses and cupped my hands around my face to look into the window. No signs of live existed, which was disappointing, although it wasn't exactly heart breaking. At least there weren't any zombies. Yet.

"There…?" Zack whispered softly. I followed his finger towards a larger building that simply read 'CHURCH'. I tilted my head in attempts to get a better view through the window, but I couldn't see a thing.

"I'll try it. Please stay here with the stuff, don't-," He scoffed and started towards the stairs that lead towards one of the houses.

"What. Don't run off?"

"Right… that was dumb… I'll be back soon." He nodded and I headed towards, presumably, a house of God.

**3/9/11 7:27 A.M.**

I haven't been updating this thing because of all the recent events. I'll start off with a while after that last entry, we got into a wreck, injuring Zack's ribs and my lip. We walked for awhile, witnessed a suicide, and finally came upon a little rural town called Farmer in South Dakota. Fearing the worst, we searched the town, came upon a church.

Once I got in there, (Zack waited outside) a good amount of heads turned and guns cocked. I raised my hands above my head and explained the situation. Lucky for us, they're kind people and we're now staying with one of the moms who had much to spare at the time.

Now we're getting ready to move on, since a majority of the resources are drained, and we're all running out of food. Thankfully Zack is a lot better and is back to his old, annoying, charming self again.

Our love for each other has lessened from lust and need to just platonic, and it's hard to think about that only about two months ago did we… do those things to each other. It's hard to think about anything from back then. It's been a unspoken law between us never to mention Max again, nor any of the situation.

That's not to say that old habits come back. We'll snuggle every now again, and I won't deny the fact that we may have kissed one night, but that's not the point. All in secret of course: the people taking care of us aren't exactly gay friendly.

We're headed to Montana, our mode of transportation, thank God, NOT our feet, and we have a lot of caring people all around us. I just hope we make it that far. Radio transmissions have come in from all over, reporting complete devastation and desertion of practically all of the major cities of the country, and the virus has indeed spread to other continents.

It's a damn shame, but it's too hard not to have just a _little _hope.

End journal.

* * *

I know it's not the best way to end an awesome (in my opinion) multi-chaptered fic, but I refuse to wait any longer to keep this incomplete. It's been _so _long, I know, and my writing style has changed quite a bit in these passed few months, so it was hard to get back into this one. This story isn't my proudest moment in my writing career, but hopefully I'll get back on track and start writing another Suite Life fic soon.

Critiques are welcomed and loved with open arms. I want to hear your honest opinion on this whole story. Well, any review is appreciated really. Critiques, flames, reviews or no, thank you all so much for taking the time to read my story!


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